THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013
PAGE 4
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
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"Challenge me in QuizUp," she said. "We'll just play one round," she said.
I'd consider myself a professional at sipping the whipped cream off the top of coffee without actually drinking the coffee.
Happy let's-have-fun-watching-the-out-of-staters-that come-from-places-with-no-snow-freak-out-becauseit-snowed-for-five-minutes day, everyone!!
Thank you to the wonderful Jayhawks who helped me push my car up the hill at a a.m.!!!
I decided to start going to class just in time for finals, and boy is it exhausting. How did you people do it all semester?
The fact that it's warmer in Canada right now makes me want to move there even more.
Another fun night at Tower AI Woken up not once but twice in the middle of the night by the emergency alarm!
Hey UDK, if the Player to Watch is JoJo, you should have a picture of Jojo, not Wayne Selden...a dead lion would also suffice.
I wish they made mittens for my buttcheeks.
Remember remember the 5 of December, and how much the weather sucked ass. I see no reason during this time of season to ever go to class
If you got a ticket in the Burge Union's parking lot Thursday you deserved it.
When that nervous feeling takes over your body when you see a cop walking around Anschutz even though you've done nothing wrong.
SPOOODOOOORTINNNG KC!!!!
It's basketball season. I was told there would be victories.
I've masturbated in way weirder places than I've had sex.
Thank you to whoever was playing the piano in the Union so beautifully on Friday morning.
Do students really hook up with teachers?
I didn't know Joel Embiid and Wayne Seldon were identical twins...
I think people on this campus care way too much about what other people are wearing. This is college, not Milan. (That's a fashion city, right?)
UNSOCIAL MEDIA
An arbitrary list of reasons why Buzzfeed literally sucks
I make lists. I have three post-it notes on my desk right now, reminding me of upcoming deadlines, things to do and new music to check out. And yes, each post-it is color coded.
I have always been an organized person, with some inclinations that might even suggest OCD. Until recently, lists were a symbol of this, a representation of my neatness. But the recent emergence of "listicles" has managed to not only devalue the concept of a list, but also create shallow bonds between those who read them.
A listicle, as defined by Wikipedia, is "a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure...the building-block nature of the listicle lends itself to more rapid production."
Considering the fast-paced environment of online journalism, the listicle seems like an easy fix to stay up to speed.
Just the other day I shared my pessimistic thoughts on listicles with a group, receiving a single smile of agreement, while the rest looked as though someone
adj just told them Santa isn't real (SPOILER ALERT).
I sympathize with these sentiments, and understand most people who might be reading this will immediately disregard the rest of the words on the page — not wanting to hear such awful things said about the beloved Buzzfeed. But I encourage you to try and read on.
I will admit — Buzzfeed has made me laugh. Some of their listicles, as well as others posted by sites like Elite Daily, Listverse and nearly every other website, can be extremely entertaining. Even as I write this, I find myself distracted by irresistible titles such as "10 Reasons the Moon Landing Could be a Hoax," or the ironic "9 Things You Need to Know About Listicles."
This newfound obsession with lists is everywhere — no topic is safe from being reduced to the format. But where is the value in this endless inundation of lists? Why should we allow a list to tell us "25 Things You Should Tell Your Best Friend Right Now?"
How can we trust an article to tell us "23 Experiences That Make You Proud To Be A Homebody," when the list includes vague generalizations among a few points that actually make us smirk to ourselves as we think, "that one's so true, I totally do that."
It's not so much the context included within the lists that bother me, but rather the context in which I discover these lists. The best friend list had been posted on multiple Facebook pages, alerting cyberspace to best friend duos everywhere. The homebody list had also been posted on Facebook had also of my friends to another friends' Facebook page — laughing at the fact that they had both decided to stay in together.
I have always supported the long-withstanding argument that social media is ruining our abilities to converse with one another — and listicles are a prime illustration of this process.
People are reducing their relationships to that of a list. It's become acceptable to allow sites like Buzzfeed to compile a summary of things we might say, if only we had the time. Phone tag with your friend? Why bother when you can simply post a list of things you "should" tell him or her anyway?
People turn to these lists to find comfort in the antics they believe no one else can relate to — for example, staying in. It is true, staying in on a Saturday night might not fall under the category of an expected social norm, yet Buzzfeed's list of reasons to be proud ensures its readers that they are not alone. That it's not just acceptable to stay in, but that it's something to be proud of. Since when do we rely on a list for validation of our behaviors?
Lists are easy—they aim to simplify. Sometimes, we don't
have time to sit on the phone, and we like knowing that other people do the same things as us. And, that's okay. We're busy, and were uncertain. After all, one of the many things Carrie Bradshaw has taught me is that this is what your 20s are for.
While sites like Buzzfeed provide us with a laugh or a distraction every now and then, I think that should be as far as they go. We can't let our everyday relationships fall to the sidelines while our virtual ones flourish. We shouldn't sacrifice reading a page of information for the condensed version.
Every now and then, someone will tell me, "Hey! I saw your article in the paper!" To which I respond, "Cool! Did you read it?" I'm starting to think if I wrote in list form, their responses would be different.
BOOK REVIEW
Lyndsey Havens is a sophomore
'The Corner' exposes innercity struggles to all audiences
Perhaps you know David Simon as the writer and producer of "The Wire"—the HBO drama that ran from 2002-2008 about the city of Baltimore and its various characters, including drug dealers, police, dock workers, teachers, reporters and politicians. What you may not know is that he also co-wrote, with Ed Burns, a book chronicling their year-long observation of the community surrounding one of the most high-traffic drug corners in Baltimore, aptly titled "The Corner." Where "The Wire" is a plot-driven, fictional account (don't read this as a criticism; "The Wire" is awesome in its own way), this thick book delves deep into the lives of its characters and the humanity of the corner. The greatest strength of the book lies in the authors' ability to accurately portray the stories of the people it follows, and the questions it raises about our preconceived notions regarding poverty and the "war" on drugs.
"The Corner" lets us experience a year in Deandre McCullough's shoes, a teenager struggling to find his identity in the world of the corner, torn between a school system where failure is the expectation, a non-existent home life with an absent father and drug-addicted mother and the ever-growing expectation and social pressure to become another drug-slinging gangster. Spending time with Deandre, we begin to see ourselves in him. In this experience, Simon and Burns challenge the notion that the disadvantaged can simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps, saying "we grant ourselves the illusion that it's not chance in
By Jason Bates jason.s.bates@gmail.com
circumstance, that opportunity itself isn't the defining issue."
The error in this viewpoint is to imagine ourselves thrust into impoverished circumstances with all the prior experience, training and support gained from parents, mentors, schooling, etc. The reality is that many don't have these privileges from day one.
One of the most powerful messages I found in "The Corner" was that "[e]mpathy demands that we recognize ourselves in the faces of [the corner]."
the faces of [the corner.]
The authors also dissect the details of the drug trade and the police response to it. Bob Brown, a near-mythical character of his micro-universe, tirelessly rounds up drug slingers and addicts alike and sends them to jail, from which they shortly return and pick up where they left off. Simon and Burns characterize Brown as the stereotypical beat cop that knows his small community like the back of his hand, and continues to fight despite overwhelming evidence that the battle is already lost—the community itself is its own worst enemy. They question the tactics of the war on drugs in Baltimore, in which arrest statistics are the misleading gauge that gives a semblance of progress. They note that "[s]tupid criminals make for stupid police... As a result, police work in inner city Baltimore has
been reduced to fish-in-a-barrel tactics, with the result that a generation of young officers has failed to learn investigation or procedure." What I think that this shows is that a zero-tolerance policy often puts the greatest burden on those at the street level without making an effort to prevent the root-causes of the drug trade. Simon and Burns don't present any easy solutions to these complex problems; they merely identify them and show that our current efforts are failing. It seems clear that drastic changes are needed to fix a broken system.
Reading “The Corner” is a real struggle; it would be easy to put the book down and go read a carefree novel. But the truth is that it is a rewarding struggle. Most importantly, it reminds us to not turn a blind eye to suffering. “[W]hen we can ride past them...car doors locked, our field of vision cautiously restricted to the road ahead, then the long journey into darkness is underway”, the authors aver.
Reading "The Corner" was an exercise in empathy. Practicing empathy in our own daily lives doesn't always have to involve sweeping gestures like the study undertaken by the authors. It can be as simple as being more tolerant of your roommate(s), or cutting that one group project member some slack for once. It may not be much, but it could still have a long-lasting effect.
Jason Bates is a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering from Overland Park.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
HYGIENE
The dirty truth about your living space
What are some other things you're missing that are repulsive and gross?
Do you close the lid when you flush? No? Perhaps you didn't know that if you don't put the lid down, a waterspout of germs and bacteria shoots out and covers your bathroom.
Your sheets and pillows
To prove this, dye the water with a few drops of food coloring, hold a white sheet of paper over the toilet and watch as the water brings colorful life to the once pristine sheet of paper. Now imagine that this is fecal matter, urine and/or blood. If your toothbrush is nearby, watch out! Charles Gerba, Ph.D. and professor of microbiology at University of Arizona in Tucson, said, "Polluted water vapor erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl and if can take several hours for these particles to finally settle — not to mention where."
your sheets and pinnles
If you aren't washing your sheets on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, you are going to bed regularly with dead skin cells, sweat, bodily fluids, and skin oils among other substances. Your pillow isn't excluded from drawing these byproducts either. According to SymptomFind, pillows can harbor mold, yeast and bacteria, which can lead to undesirable consequences. Your pillows should be washed at least twice per year. While gross, your bed isn't normally an infectious source, but rather a strain on your respiratory tracts. If you suffer from allergies or asthma, laundering your sheets will benefit you. Even if you don't have these conditions, an allergy may develop from constant strain on your airways.
In short: Wash sheets every week, or bi-weekly. Wash your pillows twice per year.
When your towel becomes crusty, the time to wash it has come! Your towels should be changed every 2-3 days, or after three uses. How can you expect
Your towels
Trevo Graff, editor-in-chief editor@kansan.com
Allison Kunn, managing editor akohn@kansan.com
Dylan Lysen, managing editor dysenl@kansan.com
HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
to dry off your clean body with a towel covered in water splashed from your toilet, skin oils and maybe even your roommate's hair? As you dry your body off with a towel, you're depositing germs and dead skin cells onto it at the same time. Allow towels to hang flat and dry completely, and wash them often.
In short: change every two to
Not allowing your toothbrush to properly dry after use can lead to germs, fungus and bacteria, according to Colgate. Change your toothbrush every three months, because it loses its effectiveness to clean from daily use. It's also wise to swap toothbrushes after you've been sick or had mouth sores. In short: change every three months.
In short: change every two to three days.
Length: 300 words
The submission should include the author's name, grade and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansascom.com/letters.
The sponge residing on your kitchen sink is one of the dirtiest items in your house. Wiping down your countertop with a sponge infested with mold is just spreading the bacteria all over your kitchen! To avoid replacing your sponge weekly, sanitize it in the microwave for two minutes. This time allows bacteria to be nuked and killed. Before placing it in the microwave, wet the sponge down and put a cup of water in the microwave with the sponge. Be careful and allow the sponge to cool off before wringing it out.
Your toothbrush
In short: microwave for one-to two minutes.
Send letters to kansanopdesk@gmail.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the e-mail subject line.
LETTER GUIDELINES
Anrenee Reasor is a junior studying Economics and EALC from Thayer.
Your kitchen sponge
**seraSanasaOpinion** 12:00, wake up 2:00, wallow in self pelt 3:30, stare into the abyss; 4:50, study debating, tell no one; 5:30, jazzierce
@cfgalloway6
Will Webber, opinion editor
wwebber@kansan.com
webber@kansan.com
Mollin Pointer, business manager
mpenter@kansan.com
Sean Powers, sales manager
spowers@kansan.com
@TheYoungWolf91
KannanOuani sleeping off the most viscous of hangovers.
]
@KUguardgrl13
@KansanOpion Getting in those last few hours at work before winter
break! #money
CONTACT US
Brett Akagi, media director & content strategist bakagi@kansan.com
Jon Schillt, sales and marketing adviser
jschillt@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Trevo
Graft, Allison Kohn, Dylan Lysen, W Webb,
Pointer Pointer and Power Sources.
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