TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY GANSAN
PAGE 4
It's because if a bus driver reverses, they get fired immediately. They have to wait for a supervisor to guide them
opinion
Sorry, man. I wasn't staring. You were just between me and the window I wanted to look out of.
Having to walk through campus after 5 is lonely.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
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To the guy who united his Spery before putting it on: doesn't that defeat the prospect of Sperrys?
I wore a red shirt today, now my foreign roommate calls me spiderman because of it. I don't see the logic, but I'll take the compliment.
NBA 2K14 Draft. With the 1st pick, the Phoenix Sun's select... Wayne Selden?
Seeing someone take a tumble down the stairs just made my Monday that much better.
Can we have a football game that is four first quarters back to back?
Warm toilet seats are preferable. They let me know someone else was comfortable enough to sit there.
Oreo are as addictive as hard drugs?
Sign me up for further studies!
This is as cold as it gets...right?
Rockin my pearly yellows.
SELF-CONTROL
Pronunciation guide for confused students: Fraser rhymes with "laser" as in "laser pointer" and Horejsi is "whore-ish". Weird but true. Love, a friendly Student Ambassador.
People still play Guitar Hero? Invite me over, I wanna play! I'll bring my Spongebob snuggle!
Remember the horror of wearing the same thing as someone else in middle/high school? The Greeks don't remember either.
My horoscope says today is a 6...
while my arch nemesis' day is a 7.
This is UNACCEPTABLE.
The Walking Dead sucks... Bold, I know.
Can we get library police to beat the crap out of people who talk loudly in the quiet areas?
of all the crap you see people wearing around here; toe shoes is what creeps you out?
I wish people would stop taking the door handles off of the Eaton entrances.
I don't trust anyone who eats unfrosted Pop Tarts.
Porn addiction causes mental, physical issues
It's not because of my moral compass or religion. And though I wish it were because of its objectification of women, sadly, it's not out of shame or guilt either - I'm quitting porn for my health.
I am the product of a pornographized Internet. Chances are, if you're a male under the age 40, you are too. Let me put this into perspective.
Accessible Internet porn has been available to users since before I was born. Unlike men from my dad's generation, when I grew curious about sex, I had an array of websites with images and videos to explicitly show me how professionals perform it. And the hard truth is, ever since I discovered porn, not only has it become more accessible, but it's also been a crutch in my personal life (sometimes you need to channel Drake in order to admit you might be "addicted to naked pictures").
Anybody who actively peruses Tumblr knows of its overwhelming porn presence, and anytime the name "PornHub" gets dropped, almost anyone my age
- men and women alike - know about the infamous website. But because porn is so prevalent and is used to stimulate arousal so frequently, recent studies are showing negative long-term effects, and young men are taking notice.
Physiologist and founder of YourBrainOnPorn.com Gary Wilson was invited to present a TED Talk due to a growing demand for credible scientific information pertaining to porn-use and its effects. According to Wilson, who cited research conducted by head of Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine Dr. Carlo Foresta, excessive porn use leads to arousal addiction, which in turn reduces natural libido, causing numerous negative symptoms. According to the video description of Wilson's TED Talk, symptoms include "escalation to more extreme material, concentration difficulties, sexual performance problems, radical changes in sexual tastes, social anxiety, irritability" and "inability to stop."
To put his argument in more alarming terms, porn addiction is physiologically causing erectile
By Evan Shinn
eshinn@kansan.com
dysfunction for men in their 20s. And to be fair, he's not the only one who's noticing it.
Writer Naomi Wolfe of New York Magazine conducted interviews with young people and concluded that Internet porn has created "a whole generation of men ... less able to connect erotically to women—and ultimately less libidinous." Because of this, she writes, young women feel as if "they can never measure up" sexually.
What really resonates with me is that society already pressures women to live up to unobtainable standards of beauty. Now, to add to the mess, it's asking for hyperbolized bedroom activity, all while novelty sex is causing men to lose their natural drive to perform. It all seems like a Catch-22, but there might be a way out.
Wilson points out that there isn't much research to back up these claims on porn-induced ED, noting the trouble in researching this issue due to the lack of a sizeable
control group of young men who do not use porn. But those who have broken their habits claim to have seen major improvements in physical, social and mental health. A new trend started by a group of Reddit users called "NoFap" — a 90-day challenge to abstain from porn and masturbation — has already bandwagoned thousands of young men who've experienced excessive porn-induced symptoms and are seeking help.
According to Reddit's NoFap page, based on anecdotal reports by members, potential benefits from quitting porn include pleasure-response healing, increased self-control, more free time and overall improved attitude, especially toward sex.
One individual — nonaffiliated with NoFap — experienced similar results after quitting porn.
In a radio interview conducted by Wilson in Ashland, Oregon called "Your Brain in the Cyber-Sex Jungle," a young psychiatrist shared details on his recovery from porn-induced ED, claiming to have more energy, strength and alertness, as well as a regained ability to sexually perform after
quitting porn.
What's interesting about the psychiatrist's recovery is the tale leading up to it in which he lists free time, stress and living alone as factors that allowed him to fall into his excessive porn habits. As a college male living with an almost absentee roommate, I can relate to this.
Although there's very little scientific research to back up claims of porn causing aforementioned symptoms, there isn't any to refute it either. In Wilson's radio interview, he theorizes that "high-speed Internet porn is way ahead of the research" in terms of how recent it is. He then jokes that "when the next DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) comes out in about 20 years, maybe then" something will be noted regarding the phenomenon, to which his guest replies: "Yeah, when half the male population is incapacitated."
Evan Shinn is a sophomore majoring in journalism from Lenexa.
IRONMENT
Man-made environment has impact on human health
Bob the Builder once asked,
"Can we fix it?" But perhaps
the more appropriate
From the coliseum to the teepee, the Eiffel tower to the adobe, it is clear that the human race loves to build things, and continue to fix that which is built. I'm sure Tim the Toolman would grunt in agreement that our society has a knack for transforming the natural landscape into structures for human purposes. But animated construction workers and funny home improvement show hosts neglect to portray the negative effects our living environments can have on our health. Studies have shown that the built environment, consisting of buildings, roadways, water systems, and energy networks, can directly affect public health indicators such as infectious and chronic diseases. In short, we are where we live.
In the 19th century, it became apparent that living conditions affect health outcomes. Often times, diseases spread from contaminated water sources due to ineffective or non-existent waste management. Thanks to increased water quality and waste management methods, epidemics are largely a thing of the past; however, the layouts of our cities have lead to increased obesity and subsequent chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and heart disease.
Why is this? The environments we live in affect our personal behaviors. If a city has limited recreational space and sparse
By Gabby Murnan
gmurnan@kansan.com
availability of healthy foods, then its inhabitants are more likely to suffer from the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet. The logic is simple: if no recreational facilities or green spaces exist, then people are less likely to exercise. If a neighborhood has multiple fast food restaurants and no grocery stores, then people are more likely to eat unhealthy foods.
Douglas County, although not perfect, is a constructive example of how the built environment can reflect positive health outcomes. Our county ranks ninth out of 102 counties in Kansas for overall public health—not too shabby. Douglas County has eight recreational facilities per 100,000 people, which is the same as the state average. 96 percent of our population has access to healthy foods, meaning many individuals are able to purchase fruits and veggies from grocery stores. Physical inactivity, which can lead to negative health consequences, is 19 percent, which is 5 percent lower than the Kansas average. The adult obesity rate is 27 percent, which is 3 percent lower than the state average. All of these factors indicate that our constructed environment largely encourages physical activity and healthy eating.
KU is also taking measures to fix the built environment. The reconstruction of Jayhawk Boulevard is mainly marketed as
a campus beautification project, but it also gives students more healthy living options. Wider sidewalks, safer pedestrian crossings and additional bike lanes will make it easy for students to preserve the environment and their health. The 200 trees that will be planted along the boulevard will act as pollution-filters and absorb around 9,600 pounds of carbon dioxide every year, improving air quality for us all.
improving an quality for us Decision-makers in Douglas County and the University of Kansas constructed healthful environments for citizens and students, but many communities in the U.S. are still barriers to positive public health. In 2012, 49 million Americans struggled to gain access to healthy foods. Additionally, large disparities in park and green space distribution exist among low-income communities. Both of these factors contribute to the obesity epidemic and its related health risks affecting America. If these problems are not addressed, recent trends indicate that obesity will cost the health care system $860 billion by 2030. Policy-makers, urban planners, city managers and citizens must come together to promote better built environments not only for our health, but also for our economy and our natural world. Can we fix this? Yes we can!
Gabby Murnan is a sophomore majoring in environmental studies from Pittsburg.
IPOLITICS
Populism provides poor governmental alternative
Many people have cited the government shutdown debacle as evidence of the failure of the two-party system. Indeed, in stark contrast to what the public wanted, the GOP pushed a shutdown strategy that invariably would fail and damage their approval ratings.
The term "Populism," when applied to a two-party system, refers to the belief that elected officials should act in strict accordance with the demands of their constituents. Many people point to the government shutdown as evidence of the failure of Republicans to grasp this concept. Few Americans agreed with the shutdown strategy, even fewer than agree with Obamacare. It's indeed a shame when the people elected to represent us do just the opposite - hijack the legislative process in order to act on their personal convictions. It is easy to see the system as broken when looking at it this way. As a body of largely defenseless voters, we have no means of redress and no method of rectifying the chaos in Washington, save for waiting for an election to roll by. But I would challenge you to consider that the opposite might not be much more desirable either.
A totally populist view has its flaws because, as shown time and again in history, the people can and will make bad decisions (read: slavery). Ok, but let's take a more recent germane example. Up until 2013, nearly every marriage equality movement,
when put on the ballot box, had failed. In the places where it did succeed, it was the because of the synergy of well grounded representatives who knew, despite the public's "better judgment" that marriage equality was the right thing to push. Given time, public attitudes came to gradually accept homosexuality.
I am not a "populist." nor am I an elitist. I am pretty cynical, actually, because I believe that no system is perfect. People who cherry-pick each moment of failure as a justification for the opposite system are missing the bigger picture, and as a result, will be willfully blind to the untold terrors that may lurk in its shadows. To me, the system is as good as it gets. GOP leaders eventually learned their lesson, and as such, capitulated to the will of the majority and re-opened the government along with raising the debt ceiling. To me, this speaks volumes of the power of public voice. Even if it took a while, the GOP finally heard us, loud and clear.
Will Ashley is a sophomore majoring in global and international studies and Chinese from Topeka.
@Ben_Samson
@KansanOpinion Pimp slap John Boehner.
Please tell me how to overdose on Oreos, I want to know how I will die.
@cocoa_kitt27
@cocoa_Kitt27
@KansonCoinen get rid of Mondays. And make it just Day. Days are probs better then Mondays.
@ThatHawkwardGuy
@KansasOpinion Term limits for Congressmen.
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