Opinion THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010
WWW.KANSAN.COM
PAGE 5A
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Wise and holy Free For All, I am in love with my best friend. I don't know if I should make a move. What should I do?
I feel lighter ... like 170 pounds lighter!
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It's 56 degrees out. Too cold to wear flip-flops?
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I got arrested over spring break for boarding on Shaun White's secret half-pipe.
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You son-of-a-biscuit-eating bulldog.
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I'm having cookies for supper.
To everyone who asks questions in the Free For All:
The answer is always "No."
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If people out there still have perfect brackets, they should be treated like they're from the future.
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If Elijah Wood, Brendan Fraser and David Cook had a love child, it would look something like Lee Dewyze on "American idol"
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A football fail, basketball fail and a debate fail? What's left?
Baseball?
I saw a girl in a sundress today. Talk about God's gift to
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Every time I walk into Smith 100, I feel like I'm about to be briefed on the Death Star.
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The problem isn't me. It's you
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I want to do bad things to you
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I wish my text messages were corporate sponsored.
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My horoscope said today would be a five. It turned out to be a zero.
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Tonight's dinner was Doritos, chocolate-covered pretzels, ice cream and an orange. At least I got some
I got her running back and forth like a soccer team.
I'll sell you my pickle for a nickel!
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Dark truth: Some vaccines can cause more pain than just a shot in the arm
HEALTH
Last semester a epidemic of fear broke out on campus. The H1N1 virus became big news, and students, parents and professors couldn't help but discuss this hot topic.
Even today, anyone who turns on the television will more than likely see a commercial instructing the viewer to "vaccinate yourself and vaccine those you love." All around campus I see posters and signs instructing students to "GET VACINATED!"
It perplexes me to think that so many people trust a vaccine that was created so quickly and with so little known about the long term effects.
History has shown that vaccines have failed before, and many people suffered grave consequences from receiving a vaccine they thought was necessary.
Anthony Principi, former Secretary of Veteran Affairs, confessed that soldiers who were vaccinated between 1990 and 1991 with the anthrax vaccine were 200 percent more likely to develop Lou Gehrig's disease. Many of those vaccinated suffered from debilitating autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and endocarditis.
These diseases can be attributed to ingredients found within the vaccine, particularly squalene and
The Conscientious Consumer
SARAH GROSS
sarahgross@kaplan.com
MF-59. Although independent laboratories found these ingredients to be particularly dangerous, studies done by the vaccine's manufacturers, Novartis and the former Chiron, which was bought out by Novartis, stated that these ingredients are safe.
Baxter, one of the companies commissioned to make the H1N1 vaccine, has a history of disastrous mistakes. Its first error was in 2006, when hemophiliac components were contaminated with the HIV virus. Tens of thousands of people received this deadly shot before the mistake was realized.
However, vaccine manufacturers have made some detrimental errors in the past, so their studies should not be viewed as absolute truths.
Recently, Baxter sent a seasonal flu vaccine that was contaminated with the avian flu to 18 countries. The Czech Republic discovered Baxter's error and stopped a possible world pandemic from
These errors are unacceptable, particularly because so many vaccines are required in the United States before students can attend public school. Before enrolling at the University, students are required to submit proof of vaccination. One of the only loopholes is to cite religious preferences.
No one would want to be forced to take a prescription drug because there are so many potential side effects. This is true for vaccines as well.
The U.S. government should not be able to force anyone to be vaccinated, nor should public institutions be allowed to deny students education because they don't want to subject themselves to the potentially debilitating effects that can be caused by vaccines.
Those who choose to be vaccinated have nothing to fear from the un-vaccinated; vaccines are designed to help an individual develop immunity to specific diseases.
Students should think critically before getting vaccinated.
No one should get vaccinated just because they are scared into believing it is necessary.
Gross is a freshman from Lindsborg in journalism and international studies.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
NICHOLAS SAMBALUK
GUEST COLUMN
Tapped out: No more plastic bottles
When water first started being put into individual bottles back in the day, I can't honestly say I thought too much about it. It was, in my opinion, a good alternative to Coke and sugary fruit drinks sold in the cold cases at the checkout of grocery stores and a convenient amenity for long road trips.
The bottled water boom of the 1990s and current consumption of more than 50 billion (yes, billion) bottles a year can be largely attributed to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. Companies like Coke and Pepsi, who bottle the Dasani and Aquafina brand bottled water, must have had some marketing studs because they effectively convinced America the water coming out of their tap was gross and dirty, and that which came individually packaged in plastic was clean and healthy. All of this despite the fact that the water was all the same.
I started to notice a lot of water bottles being left about just like Coke cans, as well as too many of them making their way into the trash can rather than the recycling bin. In fact, according to Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit organization committed to protecting natural resources, only 20 percent of water bottles are recycled: The rest end up in the landfills and oceans.
that bottled water is just filtered tap water that hasn't been as rigorously tested as municipal water, people are still drinking $35 billion dollars worth of it a year.
The industry is unnecessarily taxing on the environment as well. It's for this reason that the newly formed student group, the Climate Justice League, has initiated a "Take Back the Tap" campaign here on campus. You may have seen the enormous "water-bottle tree" that was erected at the EMU last Monday, or maybe you even removed one of the bottles from it during its "de-construction" in your own symbolic gesture to take back the tap.
While it's not news anymore
The Climate Justice League is a group that was formed by ASUO senator Jeremy Blanchard and other student activists to address a need for "targeted, goal-oriented grassroots campaigns that result in changes on campus" Blanchard said. The Take Back the Tap campaign has been aimed at creating awareness about the issue, and was coordinated by Climate Justice League member Anne Ward.
The campaign reached its apex last week at the event, where Climate Justice League members also collected signatures for a petition that was to be presented to the ASUO Senate along with a resolution that would ban student groups and student government from using incident fee money
to purchase bottled water for any events. Both the petition and resolution were a success; the petition received thousands of signatures and the Senate voted to consider the resolution at its meeting last Wednesday evening. A final vote will be held this week to solidify the procedure.
That's why any successful campaign will aim at changing or shifting consumer values; which will in turn affect consumer habits and choices rather than simply lambast corporate interests for supplying ecologically irresponsible products. Once we have the information, we can make more informed choices. I therefore applaud the Climate Justice League and its efforts to help everyone on campus be more aware of the impacts of their water consumption choices and offer them a deceptively simple solution — fill up your canteen at the fountain and drink up!
My favorite part about Climate Justice League's event and its ongoing campaign is that it addresses consumer choices, and that's really what this issue comes down to. Companies have made this superfluous product available, but we bit the bait and created a demand for it.
—Shelley Deadmond For The Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon
SCIENCE
Curing cancer unrealistic but care can still improve
There will never be a cure for cancer. Despite consistent promises of the elimination of this modern plague over the past few decades, no panacea is in sight.
Cancer has evaded the pressures of evolution and diverged in a multi-headed hydra, becoming more difficult to wrestle the more we fight to understand its biology.
This has made it all too easy for charlatans to peddle false cures to those stricken by this scourge, but vigilant scientific progress into the nature of cancer can give us reason to find optimism not in its cure, but in its treatment.
Scientists have a history of hubris, predicting a future cure for cancer during the last half of the century. Advances in technology and medicine have spurned nearly every new generation of researchers to claim a cancer cure is just on the horizon. Yet a cure is still unavailable.
Why is cancer so resilient and ubiquitous? The answer is evolution. Organisms have been subjected to natural selection for millions of years, protecting and improving our survival with the sole objective of increasing reproductive success. But as soon as we age, evolution is a cruel caretaker. There are few evolutionary reasons to promote health in the elderly, and thus cancer received an unfortunate window into humanity.
Cancer is a collection of many different kinds of uncontrolled cellular growths: leukemias, solid tumors, cancers from a variety of tissues and more. There are hundreds of cancers, each with a diverse array of treatments tailored by research. Some cancers can be surgically removed, others require chemotherapy, but most
Sai the Science Guy
But a "cure for cancer" is an oversimplified and ultimately ignorant goal. Cancer is not a single disease with a single cause and single treatment.
BY SAI FOLMSBEE
Billions of dollars have been spent on biomedical research of cancer, and the overwhelming results demonstrate the inherent complexity of the disease. To claim to want a single "cure" for cancer would be the same as wanting a single food to cure world hunger. False expectations are clouding scientific progress
This deceptive reading of modern cancer treatments has had a price; it has opened the doors for unqualified "experts" to claim bogus cures, preying on patients at their most vulnerable and promising false hope. Physicians of cancer patients can be intimidating, forced by ethics to deliver an honest explanation of the difficulty of the disease and the limitations of treatment. But alternative medicine practitioners can promise natural cures, tempting the patient to abandon medical science. These alternative treatments are often without any scientific merit or evidence, tearing the patient away from real medicine.
However, there is still reason to be optimistic. Survival rates for cancer are rising as diagnoses and treatments improve.
As complex as cancer is, there are novel treatments based on new scientific discoveries,taking what we learn from each type of cancer and providing targeted treatment. Although there will never be a cure for cancer,there almost certainly will be better treatments.
Folmsbee is a senior from Topeka in neurobiology.
Responses to the news of the week on Kansan.com
Chatterbox Responses to the news of the we
"The crazy part about all of this is the lengths these two coalitions will go to in order to win something that most people really don't care about."
"$jschlag" in response to "Shorman: Revisions to election procedures are necessary" on March 22
"The Board of Regents was acting foolishly during the good times and blew a lot of money on shiny new toys. Now the bad times have come and the Board wants to be bailed out of their bad choices."
— "Douglas" in response to "KU KO'd" on March 21
"Before signing any more players, the Kansas coaching staff might want to make some adjustments in its overall program strategy and coaching philosophy. At a minimum, it would be helpful to recruit players who are well grounded in the fundamentals of this wonderful team sport."
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