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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
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Hot lecture halls are the devil. I can hardly stay awake ... zzz
I am thankful to be in Jayawk territory today and this week 'cause my home state of SD is getting dumped with snow.
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I like to people watch people who are people watching at the library. #perception
Finally, it's cold. I hope it snows so I can enjoy snowboarding without having to travel far.
KU Quidditch qualified both teams for World Cup on Sunday and KU Football won. #KUvictoryweekend!
So what happens to all the plants KU digs up all the time on Jayhawk Boulevard?
The clunking sound that high heels make is one of my favorite sounds.
Does this moped make my butt look big?
coms 130 has a knack of making me physically ill #hategivingspeeches
Hey, has anyone asked Potter Lake what it thinks about having a goal post thrown into it? Didn't think so.
To whoever thinks it's good fewer people are majoring in the humanities: Enjoy your life without art, literature, music, film, television, language...
SNOW! This doesn't bode well for things to come.
Reading all these FFA texts talking about the warm weather made me chortlechortlechortle.
Atmospheric science student here. The cold weather this week is NOT because of the polar vortex — it's because of Typhoon Nuri.
Round of applause to the teachers not giving up on us when we've given up.
Jayhawk could you do me a favor and hold signal for more than one song. Trying to get my Pandora on.
T-Switf's 1989 is the first platinum album of 2014. She can do what she wants.
Last year I had a teacher try to make me a Marxist, and this year it's a feminist. #nope
STEM fields provide permanent solutions
The debate between STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors and humanities majors seems to be going strong, much to my dismay. Completing a major in neurobiology, while also having close to 60 credits of humanities classes, gives me a pretty unique perspective on the humanities versus STEM field debate. The argument for humanities is that they promote critical
thinking and social awareness, but people seem to forget STEM fields are based on critical thinking.
I would challenge anyone to find a humanities class that requires more critical thinking than a neurology class examining mental illness, a chemistry class exploring the creation of new plastics or a physics class investigating propulsion techniques.
The fact is that STEM fields think critically all the time. In
my opinion, they think critically at a far higher level than what a humanities course requires. Most importantly, they think critically about things that are far more important. I don't think anyone could argue that the ability to write a song, paint a picture or analyze text would ever be as important as the ability to develop new medications, create new green technology or engineer safer buildings.
Engineer safer buildings The biggest problems of
our time — war, poverty, climate change, famine, etc. — will not be solved through philosophical debate or empathy. These problems will be solved by the most creative minds in higher education working together and thinking critically with all of the training a STEM major offers.
Erika Northcutt is a senior from Wichita studying neurobiology
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Erotic novels push publishing in wrong direction
By Victoria Calderon
@Miss Maddy
U up until last week,
I thought "Fifty
Shades of Grey"
was the worst thing to ever happen to the publishing industry. Sure, it makes money — lots of money — but the series also glorifies abusive relationships and shoddy writing. It's adapted "Twilight" fan fiction, which explains both of those issues. But then I stumbled onto a NPR story about a new series of erotica novels based on One Direction fan fiction published by Simon & Schuster
According to The Guardian, Anna Todd, a Texan military wife. (under the nom de plume Imaginator1D) has
published three out of the four part series on Wattpad. com. As the cover of the first novel, "After," boasts, the series has more than 1 billion reads online. This online popularity was enough to not only convince Simon & Schuster to publish the books, but also motivated Paramount Pictures to purchase the movie rights.
The plot of "After" revolves around young, naive Tessa and her on-again, off-again relationship with One Direction singer Harry Styles. Of course, names had to be changed for legal reasons, so in the novel Tessa falls in with "Hardin Scott."
For a publishing house like Simon & Schuster to invest in erotic One Direction fan fiction, as well as to publish without consent from the band, is a step back for publishers everywhere. The publishing house, which currently represents authors like Stephen King, and previously Ernest Hemingway, is contributing to a larger problem. I've never really been into fan fiction — it's a whole other world I will never understand. But turning both of these fan fictions into actual stories causes more harm than good.
As far as domestic abuse goes, "After" is said to be worse than "Fifty Shades of Grey." A review from Inquisitr calls Hardin's character "possessive, violent, verbally abusive, and cruel!" Even the summary on the publisher's website calls him rude "to the point of cruelty." This doesn't
seem like the type of message we want to be sending to millions of people who have and will read this.
In a world where domestic violence is becoming more and more visible, it is also becoming shockingly underrated. (I'm looking at you, NFL.) We should be teaching young girls and boys the signs of an abusive relationship. We should not be marketing violence against women to readers.
By publishing books like "After" and "Fifty Shades of Grey," publishing houses are perpetuating portrayals of domestic abuse brought on by clueless fan fiction writers. Just because a novel is popular online doesn't mean it needs to be rushed to the nearest bookstores and movie
theaters.
Being published by a company such as Simon & Schuster used to be something that authors strove for. Big name companies like Simon & Schuster and Random House reject manuscripts by more credible writers every day. The motivation behind publishing "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "After" is purely for profit rather than content. Unfortunately, I don't think the "After" series will be the last fan fiction-based novel to be published, but hopefully in the future publishing houses will see the problem with publishing thoughtless, violent fan fiction.
Maddy Mikinski is a sophomore from Linwood studying journalism
2014 election results don't bode well for education
By Victoria Calderon
@WriterVictoriaC
The results of the 2014 midterm election surprised Kansans
surprised Raisans across the state. Polls in the weeks leading up to the election showed a growing distaste for Gov. Sam Brownback and other Republicans running for office this cycle. According to the Associated Press, Democrat challenger Paul Davis had more people view him "favorably" than "unfavorably" - about 43 percent and 34 percent, respectively. Brownback, on the other hand, was unpopular in the polls, being "unfavorable" to 50 percent of those surveyed.
So how did Brownback win the election by 3.9 percent
(according to AP's numbers)? That's a question many University students are asking another, one we may never get an answer to.
There have been many explanations as to why many Republicans switched sides to support Davis in this election to make it a close race. One of the most popular was explained by Salon writer Luke Brinker: "Gov. Brownback, after all, trailed Democratic challenger Paul Davis in the polls for most of the 2014 cycle, owing to the destructive fiscal consequences of his large tax cuts."
Brownback still believes his "destructive" economic policy will end up helping Kansas in the long run, comparing it to the slow growth that occurred for 20 years
after the implementation of Reagonomics, according to Dan Bolz of the Washington Post.
"He signed off on deep tax cuts that he said would generate enough economic growth to turn the state around and also reverse the long decline in the state's population. So far, the program has not produced the predicted results, in growth rates or in state revenue. The state's bond rating has taken a hit, and Brownback has been pilloried by critics over education spending," Bolz said.
Let's talk about this education funding issue for a minute. Whether you agree or disagree that Brownback's economic plan will help Kansas in the long run, his plan is
decimating education in our state right now. He has been steadily endorsing bills to cut funding in various areas of education, which has resulted in the "basic allocation per student in Kansas [dropping] from more than $4,400 to less than $3,900," as reported by Time magazine.
by Time Magazine. Back in April, he signed into law a bill that was a response to the Kansas State Supreme Court's decision regarding public education funding as "unconstitutional." The bill added $129 million to state education funding, but at the expense of educators — the (mostly Republican) legislature added an amendment taking away due process for teachers, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. This
is detrimental to education, as teachers who have been teaching for decades can now be fired for no reason. All an administrator has to do is dislike that teacher, and they're gone. This amendment could potentially cause huge corruption in schools.
Brownback's track record has proven he isn't dedicated to helping the future of education, only to making his failing economic plan succeed. He is allowing changes to our public education system that will hurt our younger siblings, future and present educators, and our state as a whole. And it can only go downhill from here.
Victoria Calderon is a sophomore from Liberal studying English and political science
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Emma LeGault, editor-in-chief elegault@kansan.com
Are erotic novels like 50 Shades of Grey sending the wrong message to its audience?
@lauwrenorder
@KansanOpinion I think that the author was ignorant in the abusive undertones portrayed in Fifty Shades, so others believe it's condoned.
Hannah Barling, digital editor hbarling@kansan.com
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Just wanted to say thank you to birds and their down-feathers in my jacket. You're the real MVP.
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THE KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan
Editorial Board are Emma
LeGault, Madison Schultz,
Cecilia Cho, Hannah Bartling
and Carrie Careira.
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