Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FROM ABROAD: TRANSPORTATION ACROSS THE OCEAN AND AT HOME
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I went and saw my godfather last night and he informed me that he is taking his cat to a "cat whisperer" that charges $90 an hour. Seriously?
I saw a guy wearing a kilt today. My question: Why the windiest day of the year?
--ass again.
I wish World of Warcraft would give me my boyfriend back.
It's like I'm a superhero and homework is my nemesis. No matter how many times I win it keeps coming back in the next episode to kick me in the
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I wish my girlfriend would give me my password to World of Warcraft back.
--in more densely populated regions of the United States, such as New England and the West Coast, students in Kansas are generally unaware of the financial viability and environmental benefits of passenger trains. Soon, it will become much more convenient for students to travel by rail in and out of Lawrence.
At Steak'n Shake this weekend, we saw some really drunk guys going into the bathroom, and without thinking, I asked if they were having a pow-wow in there. They were all from Haskell.
Dear McCollum Staff: Spanish culture and Mexican culture are two different things. Get educated before you lump everything together for your dumb culture night.
"The Hills" is right up there with AIDS and genocide in terms of impact on the human mind and society in general.
Dear roommate, please discontinue your habit of setting the thermostat to hell degrees. Thank you.
I wish random people would stop attacking me every other minute on Mob Wars so that I could actually save up my money to buy the yacht.
--in more densely populated regions of the United States, such as New England and the West Coast, students in Kansas are generally unaware of the financial viability and environmental benefits of passenger trains. Soon, it will become much more convenient for students to travel by rail in and out of Lawrence.
I was that zombie on Mass. Street yesterday. I'm still looking for some brains to eat.
It was 3 a.m. and I was craving popsicles. So I went to the store. They didn't have them. But I ended up buying $50 worth of other food.
--in more densely populated regions of the United States, such as New England and the West Coast, students in Kansas are generally unaware of the financial viability and environmental benefits of passenger trains. Soon, it will become much more convenient for students to travel by rail in and out of Lawrence.
--in more densely populated regions of the United States, such as New England and the West Coast, students in Kansas are generally unaware of the financial viability and environmental benefits of passenger trains. Soon, it will become much more convenient for students to travel by rail in and out of Lawrence.
It's OK if you can't keep all the men in my life straight. I can barely keep them all straight. I'm just glad they're all straight.
Why, tornado sirens, must you go off when I'm napping?
Thank you to the McCollum worker who talks to me every morning on the stairs. You make my days a little bit better.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Students should consider taking a ride on the train
When students return home during breaks and the occasional weekend, most of them either drive or take a plane. One option students rarely consider is taking the train. Although commuters often travel by rail
The Amtrak train station in Lawrence will receive $600,000 as part of the American Recovery Act passed by Congress this year, according to a recent article from the Lawrence Journal-World. The ARA has allotted $1.3 billion for the Secretary of Transportation to give grants to Amtrak for investments. This plan aims to build infrastructure that will help the economy in the long run. Amtrak said in a press release March 25 that it would use $40 million of this money to upgrade and improve accessibility for
disabled persons in more than 200 stations across the country. The Santa Fe depot in Lawrence will receive funds to build a new passenger platform that will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Amtrak trains stop at six
KANSAN'S
OPINION
stations in Kansas:
Lawrence, Topeka,
Garden City,
Newton, Hutchinson
and Dodge City.
Amtrak recorded
4,000 boardings and
alightments at the Lawrence station during 2008, which reflects a relatively low number of passengers. These low numbers show a lack of awareness about the station's availability.
"I would rather take a train because they're better for the environment and the community," Stiles said. "You don't need directions."
Matt Stiles, Lawrence junior,
said he liked trains but did not
know there was a station in
Lawrence.
Despite the apparent lack of awareness about the Lawrence train station, rail travel is becoming more popular nationwide. Amtrak states on its Web site that the company has seen an overall increase in its
number of passengers nationwide in each of the past six years. Amtrak trains stop in more than 500 cities.
Ticket prices are one of the benefits of taking the train. Train tickets generally cost less than airfare. A trip from Lawrence to Chicago costs $192 by train, but with US Airways it costs upward of $200, not including baggage fees and depending on how far in advance you book your flight. Flying may take less time, but you'll see more of the United States traveling by train now than you would otherwise. Amtrak offers a student discount of 15 percent after you purchase a $20 discount card, so if you take multiple train trips in a year, purchasing a discount card could save you money.
Claire Hinrichsen, Lecompton sophomore, used EuroRail trains to travel around Europe during a high school trip. She said people in the United States should utilize trains more often.
"It would cut down on cars and gas usage, and there would be less pollution," Hinrichsen said. "I don't know why we don't use them more."
Samantha Foster for The Kansan Editorial Board
SCIENCE
MCAT forgets purpose, puts focus on flash cards
Last Saturday, I spent about five hours staring into a computer screen, determining the ultimate destiny of my career. My months of preparation and years of study will be boiled down to a two-digit number, supposedly representing the entirety of my knowledge of physical sciences, biological sciences and verbal reasoning. This test is the apogee of every pre-medical college student's experience and is both feared and respected. This test is the MCAT, and for all its influence and weight in medical school applications, this gauntlet of standardized test questions fails to evaluate the scientific literacy of students.
On the surface, the idea of testing a student's general scientific knowledge and reasoning seems generally benign and useful, but the main flaw with the MCAT is not what it tests, it's what it does not test.
THE ADVANTAGE OF GETTING INTO MED SCHOOL?
To do well on the science portions of the MCAT today, one has to memorize thousands of facts and formulas. But this is not an accurate reflection of what a doctor actually does. There is more to science in the real world than what can be written on flash cards. The MCAT does not test a student's ability to judge the validity of a scientific study or attack a problem using the scientific method. Instead
The Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, is actually fairly new to the field of medicine. The whole idea of testing medical aptitude didn't start until 1928, when an effort began to combat high dropout rates in medical school. Incoming medical students were not adequately prepared for the academic onslaught of intensive medical schooling, and medical school administrators created a standardized test as a method to screen incoming students for their educational potential.
MARIAM SAIFAN
it encourages pre-med students to blindly memorize terms and formulas without stopping to ask why they are important.
Scientific literacy is becoming more and more integral to the medical profession. With new drugs, novel therapies and dynamic biological concepts, doctors are more than just individuals following a user manual for patients. Doctors need to have the ability to understand whether a certain clinical trial supports the safety and efficacy of a drug and eventually administer it to the right people at the right time in the right dosage. Medical schools should evaluate incoming students on their ability to examine data for its scientific merit.
The MCAT does a great job at being what it is. It is mind-bogglingly difficult and gives medical admissions offices a clear number with which to rank their applicants. But it does not adequately prepare undergraduate
students for the scientific rigors of a medical career.
For example, instead of giving a passage concerning the function of the kidneys, the MCAT should give a section on the scientific study of a drug's effects on the kidneys. Instead of forcing a regurgitation of kidney facts, the student should be tested on his or her ability to interpret the difference between whether a study supports or refutes a hypothesis.
The test needs to stray, at least in a small way, from the evaluation of a student's memorization of facts to a measure of the student's ability to make scientific decisions.
Although I have already spent my five hours of taking the MCAT, future pre-med students should demand that their five hours have fewer formulas and more science.
Mollsbee is Topeka junior in neurobiology.
RELATIONSHIPS
Making first move may be tough,but it's a guy's job
The old adage of men and women being from separate planets is not new to anyone, yet I find myself more puzzled than ever before. The Gilmore Girls said it best when claiming that it's not Mars and Venus, because at least they're both planets, but more like Venus and a bowl of soup. (Men are obviously the soup in this case.)
Aside from the vast discrepancy in maturity levels, with the increasingly popular independent-woman type, the rules of dating have become completely undefined. It is no longer a black and white issue, but instead a big gray mess. Who is supposed to do which embarrassing action at what inconvenient time?
As a freshman I anticipated the college-dating world to differ from high school immensely. Yet, it seems that while girls are continuing to mature, the boys are still yelling out arbitrary bird-calls from the dorm stoop at 2 a.m. and having "condom wars" in the community bathroom. I had hoped that living on our own meant we had become respectable adults, but apparently I was completely off-base.
Opening doors, paying for meals and offering that jacket on a chilly evening are not necessary acts in today's dating world. These old fashioned tactics are often overlooked and forgotten, though many girls still appreciate them. I think it's fair to say that most girls can be independent and take care of themselves. When have we ever rested all responsibility on a male? That's just asking for disappointment. But let's face it; there are certain times when we expect guys to step up to the plate.
Take making the first move, for example. It is awkward, its dreaded, but somebody has got to do it. Men, I'm talking about you. We females can only flirt and make obvious hints for so long before losing interest and moving on to someone who can take charge of the situation. Trust me, we aren't flirting with you because we have nothing better to do with our time. We are in college, after all, and have endless amounts of homework. But that shy smile and playful hair twirling, that's for you, bud. So how about you man up and start a conversation? I can guarantee your efforts will be rewarded.
The fact of the matter is, there are just certain things guys are expected to do. Hey, I don't like the fact that women so often become your mother and cook and clean for you, but for some reason so many of us do it.
I can't say exactly why this monumental first step is a crucial component for the male's success. I'm not sure anyone really knows, but it's what many women want, plain and simple.
I'll be the first to admit that most women, myself included, generally like to be in control. But when it comes to the opposite sex, we like to be taken care of, too, every once in a while. There's plenty of time for us to wear the pants when we're married, but for now, get your game face on, give us that winning smile and take charge!
Wilson is a Hutchinson freshman in journalism and English.
BY JACKIE M. MULLEN
Notre Dame
The Observer
FROM INDIANA
New kind of downsizing could be key to recovery
ownsizing in business terms usually carries negative connotations:
means losing jobs, losing space,
losing revenue. Downsizing in
houses means either your child
drown moved out or you lost your
job. It can be good — that you
just don't need the space — but
it's somehow still against our
American bigger is better mentality. Downsizing in general tends to get a bad rap.
But downsizing is exactly what we need right now. Our country is huge; a massive coordination of interests, regions and ideas, but not everything about us needs to be as massive as our waistlines and our supermarkets.
A lot of movements picked up this idea long before the economic meltdown. One of the biggest actors in the downsizing movement has been the food industry.
Small farms movements, Slow Food, organic, composting and opposition groups to industrial agriculture have all propelled the ideas of reestablishing connections with the food you eat and where it comes from, downsizing from the big agribusiness to a more manageable, more personal way of getting your food.
Downsizing of the economy itself means smaller businesses. It means less impersonality, less apathy towards work, less feeling lost in the crowd. It means more unstable businesses at first, but if we can localize those businesses it can ensure stability while also providing a much-needed sense of community that can get lost in the suburban babylonirns.
We keep falling and falling in this economy, but if we can get down to the basics, wouldn't we have an easier time picking ourselves back up when the bottom gives out?
— UWire
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