KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010 / NEWS / 15A
SCIENCE
MCCLATCHY.TRIRLINE
Austin Sendek, 20, of Yreka, a UC-Davis physics student, pictured June 10, is trying to get a scientific body to use 'hella' to describe the now unnamed quantity of 10 to the 27th. Leading more than 60,000 fans on Facebook, Sendek has reached success with Google, which has already incorporated his use of the Northern California's slang term in its online calculator.
'Hella' recognition for new measure
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Forget 15 minutes of fame. Austin Sendek is getting hailr minutes.
The University of California-Davis physics undergraduate has reaped international attention since March, when Sacramento's newspaper, The Bee, wrote about his campaign to establish a new, scientifically accepted prefix, "hella" to be used in front of units of weight, distance or just about anything.
It would be used much the same kilo, mega and giga
However, instead of designating,
respectively, a thousand, million
or billion, hella would mean 10 to
the 27th power, or 1 followed by
27 zeroes.
The international committee that decides such matters is expected to hear the idea at its September meeting in Paris. Chances of approval are considered to be hella slim.
Undaunted, Sendek has continued his campaign, buoyed by the attention it has garnered. Measures of interest include:
News stories in papers in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as websites around the world.
Radio interviews with broadcast
ers from Canada to Australia.
His Facebook petition now has about 63,000 fans.
Wikipedia includes the proposal in its discussion of units of measurement, while Google includes it in its online calculator.
Perhaps the most gratifying experience occurred when he returned home to Yreka, Calif., for summer break and went to visit a former teacher.
He was on the playground when a kid did a double take and asked, "Are you the hella guy?"
It turned out the teacher had shown a TV clip of Sendek's proposal.
He was quickly surrounded by fifth-graders seeking autographs and saying "hella" repeatedly. Which is quite a change from when Sendek was that age and wasn't supposed to use the word.
"I always thought of it as a borderline bad word," he said.
The word is a mostly Northern California slang usage, according to a San Francisco linguist, Rachelle Waksler.
Grammatically, it's an intensifier, roughly equivalent to "really" or "a lot of".
But Sendek wants it to be precisely equivalent to $10^{\wedge}27$.
Coconut water gives energy
HEALTH
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Even the most studious, organized, type-A high school student will spend a morning as the frantic college student. It's more or less a rite of passage. You'll hate these moments now and, miss them later, or wonder how in the world you made it out alive, with a diploma no less.
The first frantic morning is no doubt the scariest, when you realize mom's not there to make your eggs and toast. You need fuel. Something to turn this morning monster into a functional student — awake, hydrated and nourished.
Traditionally, you could take
your choice of two remedies: coffee or Gatorade. One dehydrates and the other pumps the body full of sodium; neither nourishes.
Enter coconut water. Popularized by the natural food movement, coconut water has 670 milligrams of potassium per serving while Gatorade has only 39 milligrams in the same volume.
In case you slept through biology class, Potassium is full of electrolytes and keeps your heart pumping. muscles moving smoothly and your digestive tract, well, also moving smoothly. Blend a potassium-filled banana into your drink and your whole body will be moving a little smoother.
Add coffee for a much-needed kick. No time to brew and chill a pot? Starbucks' Via comes in iced coffee versions now.
The haze that's covered your mind should dissipate when the drink's icy texture hits your lips and the coffee gets to work on your neurons. For extra sustenance, add protein powder. You'll find it in all nutrition stores and, conveniently, in many male dorms.
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