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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PAGE 5A
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2011
opinion
apps.facebook.com/dailykansan
Just so the world knows, I stayed up ALL NIGHT so that by the time 7a.m. rolled around, I could get free pancakes at IHOP. Some call it stupid, I call it dedication.
Biebs would eat Ron Weasley for lunch.
I will postpone my graduation as long as possible if that's what it takes to get in the FFA.
Why not kill two birds with one brownie? Special brownies could conquer the world.
Hardest decision of the week: shark or dinosaur fruit snacks.
WHY ARE THE BATHROOMS IN MURPHY SO SMALL? It's like they're built for munchkins.
Freshman year is so boring. Why couldn't I start out at sophomore level?
Freshman year SHOULD NOT be boring. You aren't doing the right things.
Newfound bruises on my head are the closest thing to memories I can hope for.
Yeah! Now K-State can make another video!
It's so nice. Mother Nature must have finally gotten laid.
I'm happy Texas lost, but I'm already tired of the "We did on the road what KU couldn't do at home" BS from K-State fans. Everyone loves to ignore the circumstances surrounding that game.
Did you know you can bruise your tongue? I know, because mine is bruised.
I'm 100 percent convinced that my vibrating dildo makes actual sex 50 percent less enjoyable.
Simba, you're falling behind. I must ask you to Mufasa.
Strawberries and chocolate dipping sauce don't mix with driving.
HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY JUSTIN
BIEBER!
Again, I say, "Does that mean his balls finally dropped?"
Girls should NOT wear a massive Bumpet under any circumstances.
When someone hands you a flier on campus, it's like they're saying, "Hey, can you throw this away for me?"
Dear professor, I did not come to college to take part in group work. Stop assigning it! Sincerely, me.
Dearest Denise Richards, we had no idea it was this complicated. Lesson learned.
I'm giving up sex for Lent! I think my BF is going to hate me.
EDITORIAL
'Take Charge' challenges students to save energy and beat K-State
Kansas communities began the Take Charge Challenge, a competition to save energy across the state, on Jan. 29.
The challenge carries with it the promise of $100,000 to the city that saves the most money by cutting down on energy costs. There are four different regions, each competing against neighboring communities for their own $100,000.
Lawrence's opponents are our friends in the "Little Angle" Manhattan.
The challenge's goal is to motivate students to be more energy efficient.
Turning off the lights in a room you're napping in is a good start. However, the challenge offers more ideas for you to save
The four steps to success suggested on the Take Charge homepage are simple enough, but so far not enough students have heeded the call to go green.
money, as well as the ability to generate money for Lawrence.
As of today, Manhattan is in the lead. After the men's basketball team's loss to K-State, do we really want to give them more bragging rights?
Let's transfer our historic, in-state dominance into the green frontier. The strategy is simple: A Lawrence win could be assured if every student switched two light bulbs in their residence from a standard bulb to an energy efficient compact
fluorescent bulb.
These energy efficient bulbs can be found in virtually every grocery and superstore in Lawrence. For instance, Walmart sells individual bulbs for anywhere between $10-20 a piece, depending on wattage. Target even boasts five-pack prices as low as $18. They're a bit more expensive, but the energy efficient light bulbs last 10 times longer than regular ones.
Once you've changed your bulbs, log onto www.takechargekansas.org and sign up for an account. After a mere 30 seconds, you're ready to update your changes
On average, each bulb changed saves about 89, which begins to add up after a
while. The benefit of winning the challenge allows the city to receive a $100,000 to put toward "an energy efficiency or renewable energy community project," according to lawrenceks.org.
Plus, we can't let the Wildcats win again.
This challenge is an opportunity for students and residents alike to help spur the awareness of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Brett Crawford for the Kansan Editorial Board.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Recent human trafficking bust raises concern for progress of women's rights
"Baby101 not use Thailand surrogacy mother. The protection of the law is absolutely. Hundred percent peace of mind you have no worries."
This is the first thing that pops up when you go to the website www. baby-1001.com. This, however, is not what the immigration department is saving about the group.
Investigators found 14 Vietnamese women held captive in two houses to breed children for sale last month when the human trafficking ring was busted.
Out of the 14 women, seven were pregnant. Nearly 40 women are pictured as surrogate options on the website, identified only by a numbered code. Investigators say there is evidence many of them were raped.
Nine of the rescued women said they joined the ring because they were offered $5,000 for each child; four said they were tricked. Either way, they were not allowed to leave once they entered the program.
The ordering process is simple; the couple can simply pick among an array of women, then decide if they want either the egg or sperm to come from the purchasing parents. Each child costs $32,000, plus some additional costs.
The website goes through the reassurances of hiring a surrogate mother, with emphasis on the shame that follows infertility in Asian culture.
The website assures that prospective parents can "create the finest procreation condition for your baby, mainly through the efficient embryo refining, only the superior left for implanting. For this, your kids will acquire the vantage point initially in their life and you will absolutely be pride of them in the future."
If you forgive the bad translation, you get the point.
SHAUNA BLACKMON
sblackmon@kansan.com
To "volunteer" to be a mother you just have to fill out a simple, 16-question application consisting of basic name, age, number questions, then questions about eyes, whether they are double-fold eyelids or single fold, and if the mother has any genetic, severe or infectious diseases.
I won't even go into the disease thing, but it's scary that not only is a company selling babies, but possibly sick babies, especially when they are so adamant on their website about these children being almost superhuman with the best breeding and selection possible.
The distinction on the type of eyes a mother has is another racial concern. Women who have double-fold eyelids are seen as superior or more attractive in many Eastern cultures. (The double fold is the fold of skin on the bottom of the top eyelid on non-Asians.)
Even though women' rights have come a long way in the past 50 years, if this company, the recent "Rachel Maddow Show" about abortion shot at The Free State Brewing Co. or the Republican attempt to redefine rape has shown us anything, it is that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Blackmon is a junior from Olathe in journalism.
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CARTOON
STATE NEWS SHOWS
DICTATOR NUMMAR GADDFI
ADDRESSING TENS OF THOUSANDS
OF SUPPORTERS IN
TRIPOLI, LIBYA.
STATE NEWS SHOWS
GADDAFI ADDRESSING
THOUSANDS OF
SUPPORTERS.
STATE NEWS SHOWS GADDAFI ADDRESSING TENS OF SUPPORTERS.
How do you feel about people who hand out fliers or other literature on campus?
Vote now at KANSAN.COM/POLLS
GUEST COLUMN
Cultural 'need' to consume destroying the planet
Recently, I followed my friend's link on Facebook and discovered the North Pacific Trash Vortex.
For decades, plastics and toxic sludge from the U.S. and Japan have been drifting together. Now, the expanse of contaminated ocean covers an area twice the size of Texas. Worse, this plastic trash does not biodegrade into simpler elements. It just breaks down into tinier bits of plastic.
I wanted to tell everyone about the trash vortexes, but they already knew. The story had aired on TV at least two years earlier. I was still in the dark because I don't have a TV (thanks to Hulu and Netflix), and no one was talking about the trash vortexes.
Animals and their young are dying when they ingest or swim in it. It turns out there are several trash vortexes around the world.
After hearing the stunning report, everyone had just gone on with their lives. They went on buying plastic and throwing it away. They went on buying produce grown with pesticides and herbicides whose dangerous constituent chemicals come from developing countries where toxic by-products are routinely dumped into waterways. They went on buying goods whose production requires deforestation, pollution and exploitation of natural resources in less developed countries.
I think I know why. This kind of information paralyzes us into inaction. We keep buying and driving because we're dependent: We think we need these things.
The trash vortexes are major indications that our everyday lives are killing the planet. The news should shock us into change.
The bigger problem is that after graduation we'll have more money for the things we want. We'll take plane trips around the world, buy more clothing and get cool tech gadgets. We're not on a course to consuming less; we're at school
It hasn't. As always, we shut out the information.
so we can earn and consume more.
The information about the consequences of our lifestyle is overwhelming. So, we push the knowledge away and stay the course. We pretend it isn't happening.
But it is happening. We must realize that our actions are destroying Earth and killing its inhabitants (including ourselves). We must overcome our paralysis.
Wes Jackson, a renowned sustainable agriculturalist, says that our generation has a great responsibility: We must change the destructive course set by our ancestors and taught to us by our parents. He says that to save the world and our species, we must change our minds about what we think we need.
What do we actually need? The 2009 London World Happiness Survey showed that one of the poorest nations of the world, Bangladesh, is the happiest nation.
The U.S. is the second-wealthiest nation, but only the 46th happiest. The
point is this: We live by a philosophy of "consume-and-be-happy." We think that if we buy the next Apple gadget, stylish clothes, a nicer car or even if we just eat a good cookie, we'll finally be happy.
This quest for satisfaction-by-stuff has, at least, left me wanting more. It is clearly destroying our ecosystems. We have discovered massive lagoons of trash and toxic chemicals. We're even worried we'll run out of the basics like drinkable water and breathable air.
We can stop this. If we find a source for lasting satisfaction and happiness, we can be freed from the urge to consume. Then, maybe we will need less stuff, buy less plastic and less plastic will end up in the trash vortexes. If we can make changes in how we think about what we really need, we can start to change and possibly rescue our world.
Hannah Sandal is a third-year law student from Baldwin City.
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But it doesn't seem to work that way.
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