WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011
PAGE 5
opinion
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Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8341
New life goal: have the editor comment on my FFA.
Advice from my sister, "If she doesn't know Drake as Jimmy from Degrasri, she's too young for you."
You can't steal wifi if it's tres-passing in your house.
EDITORS NOTE: We really, really wanted to comment on this particular entry. Not sure why.
The spiciest part of my day was taking notes in red pen instead of black. Sad? Probably.
I can't decide if the Razor scooters on campus are weird or completely normal.
So I'm cutting out each individual FFA and saving them for basketball season. Best. Idea. Ever.
As much as I appreciate the upkeep of Watson Library's stone outside, I don't appreciate the walking death trap the stairs become once drenched with water.
I think it's lame when people mention the FFA in the FFA.
In college you have substitute teachers? What happened to cancelling the class? Day ruined.
That awkward moment when that joke you said in the Underground shows up in the Kansan and you don't know who submitted it.
NO ONE looks good in camo, ever. End of story.
Is it bad that I understand my foreign professors better than some of English speaking ones?
To my stats class, no I didn't finish the test in 15 minutes, I just really had to poop.
I love how the Kansan interviews a freshman in regards to The Hawk.
They should put FFA on the front page. It's all I ever read in the Kansan.
I refuse to be judged while singing "Hakuna Matata" on Mass. Street.
Just saw a girl studying in a tree. Not against a tree, not next to a tree, this chick was IN the tree. #winning
Do you think God was trying to make a funny when he made bananas look like a penis?
Talking about how often you get in the FFA is almost as bad as retweeting someone who asks for a RT
Yeah, I just got a free bottle of Grey Goose from the bartender. I love having tits.
To be accurate or not to be accurate
I just had to reverse transcribe a Harry Potter quote for my linguistics class. Feeling like Hermione in Ancient Runes? I think so.
FILM
As a film major, my entire academic career has been based on the idea that you can learn something from watching movies. Besides the abstract things movies teach us, like how to love, they can teach us cold, hard facts. Biopics show us the lives of important figures, historical dramas recreate important events in vivid detail and every movie can show us aspects of the world we've never seen before. Of course, not every director is especially interested in making their movie accurate so much as they are in making it exciting.
I've seen a lot of big white vans on campus today. Hide ya kids, hide va wife.
One such movie is the upcoming "Anonymous" directed by the guy who made "Independence Day" and starring no one you've ever heard of. The film purports to
Awkward moment after you talk to a girl for the first time after class and you realize you didn't introduce yourself. FML.
tell the truth behind Shakespeare authorship question.
As you may or may not be aware, there is a growing community of people who believe Shakespeare was merely a front for another playwright, like Woody Allen in "The Front" or Grandpa Simpson in "The Front".
The film boasts multiple members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the director seems pretty adamant that Shakespeare was a fraud, so you might think their's is a perfectly valid interpretation of history. The thing, it isn't. The overwhelming scholarly consensus is that Shakespeare was Shakespeare. But flash can outweigh substance and a movie about a Shakespearean conspiracy is going to convince more people than any number of journal articles.
And that's the danger of lying or providing inaccurate information in popular movies. As much as we tell ourselves to not believe everything we hear, we wind up believing a lot of what we hear. Even if you're a well-read person, you can't read a book on, every subject you see in a movie and if a film spends 90 minutes telling you over and over again that something is true;
chances are you'll believe it's true. It's not Hollywood's job to educate everyone, but they could do better than blatantly lying to us about historical facts.
-Schumaker is a junior in film and media studies from Overland Park.
The Oliver Stone film "JK" is another example of an outlandish conspiracy given credibility by a film. Obviously, the various Kennedy assassination conspiracies existed before the film and would survive without it, but I remember as a child watching the end
of the film and believing what it said, and I wasn't the only one. My eighth grade history teacher actually showed us the finale in class, and I spent much of the following years believing that LBJ may have orchestrated Kennedy's murder. It wasn't until much later that I found out Oliver Stone had been taken significant liberties with the truth.
Some filmmakers do their research, like the production team behind the 2007 film "Zodiac"; about the infamous Zodiac killer. Instead of implicitly trusting their source material, they hired private investigators to track down surviving witnesses and only showed in the film what they could prove in real life.
I'm not saying every film has to go to those lengths, but they could at least check a Wikipedia article.
INTERNATIONAL
Extreme protests a chance to learn
Nearly everyone can remember a protest that he or she has seen that carried significance. After all, that is the point of a protest. In order to influence public opinion, a person or group must capture the attention of the public. This can be done by anything from book burning to burning oneself, also called self-imolation. The extents to which people go to convey their message(s) can be increb- le, outrageous and shocking.
The influence of each particular protest may have a lot to do with how far a person or group will go to capture public attention. Religion is commonly connected to various protests ranging from a local church to a religion that dominates entire regions of the globe. Devotion to religion can influence nearly every aspect of a person's life. Of course, not every religious person would go as far as to protest to get a point across. However, some will take their mission to great lengths.
When the Hindu caste system was intact, Gautama Siddartha had other ideas, stating "it's not your birth but your deeds that determine whether you are noble or ignoble." That message challenged everything that the caste system stood for. He did not turn to violence. Instead, his teachings influenced progress, denounced greed, and largely influenced the creation of Buddhism.
More recently, ABC News reported that Tsewang Norbu, a 29-year-old monk from the Nyitso monastery, doused himself in petrol and set himself afire in China. It was reported that he was calling out, "We Tibetan people want freedom" and "Long live the Dalai Lama." Of course, this was an extreme act that is relatively uncommon as compared to other
forms of protest. In a way, though,
it is a peaceful protest. It sends a
direct message without harming
innocent civilians or higher pro-
file figures. It is really the most
extreme way to give the finger to
whomever you choose.
I find it ironic that self-immolation has been relatively frequent among Tibetan monks since Buddhist teachings are commonly interpreted as prohibiting violence upon oneself. Without rights like freedom of speech, perhaps this was the best way to send a message. After all, it was on the third year anniversary of anti-government rioting that took place in Lhasa. Either way, it is appealing to explore that message further than the headline.
Exploration of such rare incidents can lead to a better understanding of the message. Perhaps messages could be delivered in a less destructive manner, but without freedom of speech, protesters may consider themselves coerced into such bizarre demonstrations. What is to be said about a person who takes his or her message to such an extreme level? Is the governmental authority to blame? Did the protester overreact? Perhaps, but maybe it proves that the squeaky, or in this case the squeakiest, wheel gets the oil.
CARTOON
Jordan J. Gormley is a senior from Hiwatha studying political science and social psychology. Follow him on Twitter @lijgormley.
—Nick Sambaluk
LIFESTYLE
Rid the body of stress through simple exercise
It's that time again: homework is accumulating, exams are approaching, and the days until summer rolls around again are already being counted down. Inevitably, stress sneaks up on students and there's little to no way to stop it once it's here. So now is a good time to get a head start and learn how to de-stress even before you are stressed.
One of the best ways to rid the body of stress is exercise. It seems too simple to be true, and sounds like an easy way out. Exercise, however, is one of the most difficult habits to adopt. How great would life be if it were healthy to create a habit of eating a bar of chocolate every day or having a pint of ice cream? Instead, it is drilled into our brains from the time we are young
By Emily McCartney mmccartney@kansan.com
children that exercise should be done on a daily basis.
Especially now that the first month of school has passed, it is definitely time to get into the groove. According to U.S. News, exercise can reverse the effects of stress, lift depression, and improve learning.
"Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning," said Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Ratey, author of "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain", said in the article.
This means that if student's play their cards right, this triple threat could help to achieve a
great semester. Even as little as ten minutes of cardio could boost ones all around state of mind.
With this said, the statement of "I don't have time" is nothing of a legitimate excuse for not working out. Wouldn't it make sense that students be more inclined to work out and improve their studies? Working out can help raise those grades. So instead of sitting on your couch after class and contemplating whether or not to go for a run, think of your brain and keep your body healthy. After all, exercise prompts the triple threat to kick your body and your mental stability into shape.
McCartney is a junior in journalism from Orange County, Calif.
CHIRPS BACK
Can girls ask guys on dates? Do college students even date anymore?
-owun us on Twitter @UDK_Opinion.
Tweet us your opinions, and we just might publish them.
B3N R 5mith
©UDK_Opinion Girls can ask guys on dates. But, let's face it... it's either a one-night-stand or a LTR and there is no in between anymore...
DancnNancies
jennifernlane
@UDK_Opinion No. Girls can't ask guys on dates. Also, it's not date rape if she agreed to the date. C'mon UDK, get in the now.
@UDK_Union I'm goin with @samgoinham on this one.. first dates are too uncomfortable. Better luck warming me up in a bar setting. #Romance
KaylaJane157
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@UDK Opinion dates are rarity, which makes them way more special when they actually happen. step up guys: get some class, DATE a girl.
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