THE UNIVERSITY DAHY KANSAN
MONDAY NOVEMBER 18,2013
PAGE 4
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
If you didn't lose your voice this weekend, you don't love KU.
Went to Panera, my cashier's passion? Cougars.
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
my arms are tired from waving all this wheat at the football game! I'm not used to this! BUT I LOVE IT!
The Potter lake whale welcomed company this weekend, 3 pieces of a goalpost.
Shout out to the guy playing trombone in the trees on Friday afternoon.
it never fails no matter what time of day it is, Watson library makes me have to poop.
My roommate just asked who Danny Manning is and then followed up by asking if he was a football player... in other news, I'm now looking for a new roommate.
This woman just ate a hot pocket on a commercial. And she closes her lips around this goyeye cheese and is trying to look sexy. But shit. That cheese has GOT to be burning hot.
Guy walking down wescoe with a golden retriever puppy trying to pick up the ladies. Works everytime.
The elevator in Strong's door sounds like a crying puppy.
You know you're a freshman if the bus driver is telling you its ok to run to but not run on the bus.
TIL Mizzou's football stadium is shaped like a toilet bowl.
Why does your computer always decide it has to update right before you have something due?
Whatever club is writing the depressing human trafficking facts all over campus...thanks for making Friday a bit more grim.
70 degrees and we win a football game. I didn't realize today was Opposite Day.
Alumni that sell their football tickets to opposing fans should be ashamed.
Should I get a PS4, or eat for the next two months?
Shoutout to James Sims. He's been a hero every game, but a win just makes it even better.
People always smash their alarm clocks in the cartoons to shut them up, but now I just have a cracked iPhone that won't stop quacking.
If my homework was to make hand-turkeys, then I'd really be excelling right now.
Congrats to KU volleyball! I love seeing K-State lose in every sport.
Campus elevators are slower than Resnet in a rainstorm
FACILITIES
I wrote this entire article while waiting on the Fraser elevator. Okay, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. You see, I work on the 6th floor of Fraser every day, so I spend a lot of time going up and down this iconic, aging building. If I'm ever in a hurry I take the stairs, which is unfortunate because I'm not exactly athletic. Some people can take six flights of stairs and come out looking handsomely wind-blown, but I come out looking like one of those victims in a horror movie—sweaty, hair a mess, and breathing so loud you can hear me from the first floor. Needless to say, I'm not big on taking the stairs to work.
Of course, this leaves me to wait
on the Fraser elevator. It's not just that the elevator is slow to arrive; it's slow for the entire riding process. I'm so used to it by now that I'm actually surprised by newer elevators when it doesn't take me a full five minutes or more to go a few floors. I'll take an ambassador tour through Templin and realize the elevator came, took us and left within a minute. Sometimes, it feels like the future is upon us. And then I end up back in Fraser.
I think the first time I really noticed how slow the elevators were when I was in one the other day. It's my favorite one because of the drawing scratched into the sidewall that depicts a cave woman hunting. I remember the first
time I saw that picture I wondered if it was the last action of some poor soul who never escaped the elevator.
The elevators of Fraser (and many buildings on campus) are getting old. They are taking longer and they are showing their age. The Fraser elevator has been known to stop suddenly for no reason, or to pause on a floor but
refuse to open the doors for a while, as if it's forgotten how to function. It makes weird noises as it goes up and down, and it shakes when it stops, just enough to make me wonder if everything's working properly. I'll be honest, I've always had a slight fear of getting trapped in an elevator, and the elevators in Fraser don't do anything to reassure me. The best and longest conversations I've had on the elevator always seem to revolve around our group anxiety that we will spend our last moments staring at a cave woman drawing, lost in the shuffle of another day at the University.
I know this sounds like a lot of petty complaints, and in many ways, it is, but it's also something
FOOD FIGHT
I've thought about a lot lately.
Because in-between the obnoxious people who take the elevator for one floor and the people who press all the buttons, there are the people who have no choice but to take the elevator. There are the people who are disabled, or are carrying large objects or rolling packages. I may not need the elevator, but they do. And the more I look at the state of the Fraser elevators, the more I wonder how hard it would be to create a faster, safer system. Maybe it's too hard, or maybe it's too expensive, but one day—hopefully soon—the University is going to have to address this problem.
Anna Wenner is a junior majoring in English from Topeka.
Kansan debate: FDA proposes ban on trans fats in all food
SUPPORT
For your edification, the FDA recently announced that trans fats have been categorically deemed detrimental to your health, and therefore are no longer sanctioned as an acceptable additive to food. The FDA is currently working on a timetable that will slowly phase out these fats from our food. Verified scientific research suggests that the ban could save 7,000 lives each year from heart failure and prevent 20,000 incidences of heart disease.
I welcome this ban for several reasons. Many people disagree with the ban because they don't want the government to be the "nanny state" that tells them what they can and cannot eat. However, these same people aren't very foresighted, either. As it turns out, psychology has shown that without conscious effort, we cannot escape our cognitive bias to be shortsighted about the future. This means that people disregard the negative health effects of trans fats because they occur too
far down the road to be regarded as truly imminent, as most heart disease cases occur later in life. But they can't have their cake and eat it too—literally, I'm sure anyone diagnosed with heart disease wishes they didn't have heart disease, or that they could undo something in their past to have prevented it. To the select few reading this with the incontrovertible belief they will surely not regret anything, even in the face of terminal illness: my hat's off to you, and you can stop reading here. But for the rest of us, fighting out cognitive bias to disregard the far-off could save your life. Additionally, the
WETLANDS
people who say that they want the autonomy to make bad health decisions aren't considering the cost that bad health imposes on the rest of society through health care costs. In fact, this move could save billions of dollars in medical costs each year.
Call it a nanny state, or worse yet, a benevolent tyranny, but regulation is at the heart of any highly advanced society. The FDA is the agency that ensures the pills you take actually contain medicine and not sugar, and ensures harmful substances are kept out of your food. People who froth at the mouth at the mention of government regulation have chosen not to acknowledge these benefits. I won't collude with their willful blindness. This is just one further step in protecting the shortsighted from harm and spreading a little more wisdom.
Will Ashley is a sophomore majoring in global and international studies and Chinese from Topeka.
A challenge to those benefiting from the construction of the SLT
Money has been allocated and construction will begin shortly on the six-mile strip of highway known as the South Lawrence Trafficway. The addition will cut directly through one of the few remaining wetlands in Kansas and places the remains of a culturally-significant area in the shadow of noisy commercial traffic. It is disrespectful and shortsighted, marking a major backset for both the protection of the environment and the respect for other cultures. In other words, it is a victory for development.
The six-mile strip is culturally significant. It is a land where Native Americans avoided the attempted cultural extermination that occurred at Haskell, which was originally a re-education boarding school funded by the U.S. government. On this land, Native Americans passed on their stories and beliefs and made efforts to maintain their unique languages and customs. Today, it is still used by the Native American community to preserve its culture. Students study native plants used by their ancestors. Achieving a sense of peace at the medicine wheel used
Originally consisting of some 17,800 acres of wetlands, only 670 acres of the Wakarusa Wetlands are left. Still, what remains is ecologically rich, serving as a home to 243 species of birds, 21 species of fish, 22 species of reptiles and 26 species of plants. In addition to the six miles destroyed by construction, massive noise barriers will further segment what remains, blocking the movement of wingless creatures between the remaining wetlands.
for spiritual and intellectual pursuits will be rendered more difficult over the constant racket produced by the flow of commercial traffic. By paving over this six-mile strip, it sends a clear message that our community has no shame for what happened in the past and no respect for what others deem important.
According to KDOT, this instance of development will reduce traffic congestion on 23rd Street. It will provide a faster route between Kansas City and Topeka, connecting K-10 and I-70. It will boost the local economies by "encouraging development" in the Kansas City, Topeka and Douglas County communities. The SLT will consist of eight lanes.
I have heard it stated by many that this form of development is both inevitable and natural, yet I believe the use of the word "development" to define this concept is misleading. For example, the development of a child's personality is both inevitable and natural, but can we really use that same word to describe the destruction of a natural ecosystem in exchange for flat, dead cement? The word creates an illusion of inevitability, when it is merely a societal choice — an indicator of the majority's values.
In truth, an exchange is being made: nature for dollars, dignity for convenience and the damage that will be done cannot be taken back. The wetlands can never be fully reclaimed. The hurt that the Native American community has every right to feel can never be undone. It is a selfish exchange, and it is very disappointing, but what upsets me the most is that it is not surprising.
I feel ashamed to have grown up in a culture that puts money first — that has so little regard for what it is destroying and refuses to spare even six miles of land. I am ashamed that the rampant destruction of our planet is politely referred to as "development" and audaciously deemed natural.
OPPOSE
This is not about condemnation. If I did not believe the community that raised me could do any better, I would not confront it as I am now. I have faith in the goodness of my home. I grew up there, and I've seen it with my own eyes. No, I am not writing to condemn, but rather to challenge. I challenge the community as a whole to fully consider the consequences of what it does in the future. I challenge it to make the right choices—and not the easy ones—to reconsider its priorities. I challenge it as one of its very own sons, so that someday mine can grow up with their dignity intact, proud of their home.
There are too many problems in the world. More than is comfortable to think about. I suppose that as a people, we have our work cut out for us, but it starts at our homes, by making the right choices in the future — six miles at a time.
The Food and Drug Administration stated Partially Hydrogenated Oils (PHO) are no longer "generally recognized as safe," earlier this month. PHOs are the source of trans fats. Trans fats are used for baking and frying and in food products such as margarine, pie crust, microwavable popcorn, frozen pizzas, etc. Scientific research proves trans fat increases low-density lipoprotein levels causing the blockages of atherosclerosis, which increases the risk of heart attack. Thus, the FDA's proposal on banning all trans fats.
While this seems like a public health victory, let's reevaluate the impact of trans fat currently. Back in 2006, the FDA required food to be "trans fat-free" which meant all food must comply with the less than .5 grams of trans fats per serving. Companies that fill grocery shelves have reduced use of trans fat by nearly 3/4 since 2006. During this time, many fast food restaurants like McDonald's, KFC and Taco Bell eliminated trans fat completely from French fries, chicken and nachos. Nabisco replaced the trans fat in the middle of the Oreos with non-hydrogenated vegetable oil. These are just a few examples of how trans fat has already been severely reduced or eliminated. The average American has decreased trans fat consumption from 4.6 grams to one gram daily since the FDA requirement.
The problem with hyping up the elimination of trans fat is that it creates the illusion of healthier food. Though trans fats may be
the real key to healthy eating is disciplined consumption. Anything can be dangerous, toxic and unhealthy when we consume too much of it.
eliminated, they will be replaced with butter, or with oils that have higher amounts of saturated fat. Saturated fats also contribute to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
With that said, why target just Partially hydrogenated oils? What next? Saturated fats? Sugar? Salt?
Banning is a miststep. Banning allows the government to control an aspect of civilian diets. And if we can ban trans fat, when do we cross the line? We obviously cannot ban all sugar and processed food. It is important to educate people on the risks of trans fat and the impacts its use. Smoking awareness/anti-smoking campaigns and commercials have helped reduce the number of smokers in a just a few generations. A similar approach could be just as effective in this situation. But people have the right to choose what products they want to consume.
Monica Saha is a first year pharmacy student from Overland Park.
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FFA OF THE DAY
How have your eating habits changed since you've been in college?
@SaraHettenbach
@Kansan_Opinion scholarship halls = snack city.
A mysterious black lab was spotted running around the tailgates, lapping up beer this Saturday.
@Geegs30
@Kansan_Opinion Cereal for every meal. Every day.
No regrets.
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@Kansan_Opinion I have no eating habits any more, only drinking habits
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