Thumbs Down to cumulative finals. We learned this stuff in September and forgot in October. You’re a little late.
Thumbs Up to selling back your books on your own. Don’t let someone else reap the benefits of blood, sweat and tears.
Thumbs Down to being too poor to celebrate the holidays. This year you’re getting the gift of my friendship.
Thumbs Up to the end of the semester. Insert your own reason here.
Thumbs Down to inconsistency in the NFL. You guys are killing my fantasy league and I can’t let my roommate win again.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15, 2010 | always online >> theorion.com
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GUEST COMMENTARY >>
Leaks possibly neglected Bill Adams FORMER CHICO STATE PLUMBER
WikiLeaks provides free information Alexa Alexander Seymour O OPINION COLUMNIST
WikiLeaks may have introduced an ugly lump of coal into the world of diplomatic relations, but this coal can be used to energize a new trend, a trend that can free people from the leash that political and media corespondents lead people around. We trust our pundits to frame information for us. As entertainers, they don’t always do that job so well. Now, people everywhere are presented an opportunity that would normally require a security clearance. These 250,000 cables bring a chance for the general public to gain a better understanding of world events for themselves. Take the situation in North Korea for example — The RVbourn FamilyRadio evangelists going around campus aren’t the only ones who may think that the nuclear-armed “Hermit Kingdom’s” seemingly senseless and violent behavior may herald the end times. Political commentators from the major media sources such as Fox
News regularly refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as unpredictable, crazy and overall one of the most dangerous people in the world. With the cable leaks, we get a rational explanation for North Korea’s behavior that doesn’t so easily lend to fear mongering. According to senior Chinese diplomat Wu Jianghao and communications between Chinese and American officials, the dying Kim Jong-il is creating a favorable atmosphere for his son to succeed him as ruler. “The rapid pace of provocative actions in North Korea was due to Kim Jong-il’s declining health and might be part of a gambit under which Kim Jong-il would escalate tensions with the United States so that his successor, presumably Kim Jong-un, could then step in and ease those tensions,” Jianghao wrote in a cable. No one in Southeast Asia wants a war, and Kim Jongun’s de-escalation would be met with cheers and a sigh of relief at home and abroad, solidifying his place as North Korea’s leader. He will need this support. The young Kim has shown ineptitude in the past, having a hand in the country’s catastrophic
currency devaluation. The cables suggest there are senior military officials and other family members scheming to take leadership after the elder Kim’s death. This doesn’t make Kim Jong-il’s corruption and cruelty toward his people any more tolerable, but at least it’s comforting to know he isn’t a psycho with his finger hovering above the nuclear button. The leaks break another pundit talking point – that China sustains North Korea out of an urge to support a fellow communist state. Rather, China sustains the Hermit Kingdom’s corrupt, erratic regime more for material gain – as the only country willing to engage it, China gets the North Korean economic market all to itself. The cables offer more nuance, and according to South Korean officials, China is content with sustaining the corrupt North Korean regime because its collapse would let loose a flood of North Korean refugees across the Chinese border. South Korea and its U.S. ally would then walk into the North to pick up the pieces, depriving China of its buffer zone that was supposed
to separate its border from U.S. and South Korean forces. But as the North becomes more belligerent, China’s gains from using the Hermit Kingdom as a buffer, distraction or economic market diminish in the face of the potential consequences of war. A war between North Korea, South Korea and its western allies could involve nuclear weapons, and at the very least would put U.S. troops on China’s border. This explains China’s recent support, stated in a cable communication, of dissolving the North Korean regime and unifying the two countries under a South Korean banner. While China gains much from status quo in the North when war becomes the product, Korean unification becomes attractive. So go forth and read these cables, but remember that they don’t represent the undeniable truth, just an informed diplomat’s opinion. Next time you hear a political pundit spout a one liner about North Korea and its nut-job leader, you will know the world is more complex than many bother to consider. Alexander Seymour can be reached at aseymour@theorion.com
There is a sign in the campus plumbing shop that simply says: “The plumber protects the health of the nation.” I took it as an honor when in 1991 I was chosen from more than 100 applicants to be your plumber. I was told by the administrators to work to the highest standards, use the best materials; time was not an issue. “Protect the students’ health and safety,” that was my directive. Unfortunately for me, I thought this applied to administrators as well. So what happened? It was discovered in 2002 that 28 2-inch diameter Pyrex glass vent pipes were broken off under the flat roof structure of the Physical Sciences Building, venting toxic air 6 feet over students’ heads. This would be bad enough if the vents only vented the sewage part of the building. It becomes extraordinarily dangerous when you realize the 28 vents were designed primarily to vent the hundreds of lab sinks and fume hood sinks. In 2002, the administrator’s arguments for not repairing included: Friable asbestos above the ceiling from sprayed on fireproofing. No funds to abate asbestos. This is curious because in the recent Orion article, administrators are quoted using the same excuses. After many vicious arguments with those in positions over me — supervisors and administrators — I phoned Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA sent an inspector on January 14, 2003 to inspect the broken pipes. He never even looked at the broken pipes! He reported no violation. Now I’m arguing with Cal/ OSHA. They refuse to return for another inspection. Is this because they are both state agencies? Fearing exposure, the administrators got nervous. What to do? Their demand to the plumbers was, “Fix the pipes! However, you can only access them through the roof flashings.” This meant standing on the roof.
The method used was to blindly poke 1.5-inch diameter pipes through flashings and try to insert them into the 2-inch shattered glass. At best, this would only direct some of the toxic air and gases out of the building. This so-called repair is a bubble-gum-and-duct-tape -type approach meant for the short term. Anyone authorizing or taking part in this repair is guilty of a misdemeanor, according to the Uniform Plumbing Code, and violating 10 separate subsections. I demanded this illegal repair must be immediately followed by abatement and proper, legal repairs. When it became apparent to me that this would not be the case, I refused to be any part of it. Another excuse used in 2002 was the building is a positive pressure building. That’s exactly what Marvin Pratt and Neil Nunn stated in The Orion’s article. I’m so tired of explaining this that I’m going to let the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials say it for me. Simply dial 1-800-201-0335 and talk to Matt who handles code questions. Explain the situation, and then ask: Does the Uniform Plumbing Code give any exemptions for personal issues, like lack of funds or asbestos? Does the Uniform Plumbing Code give any exemption for a positive pressure building? Is the purpose of the Uniform Plumbing Code to protect the health and safety of the public? Why in the forward of the Uniform Plumbing Code does it say these are the minimum regulations? I suppose you shouldn’t be too alarmed. After all, as Pratt said, “Our chief engineers and chief designers have looked at it and so have other professionals. Some pretty specialized and educated people looked at this and no one saw a problem except Bill.” What I am asking of the faculty, staff and especially students is to demand an investigation of this matter. A proper inspection must be performed. Bill Adams
Identity crisis comes with white dress Joanna Hass OPINION EDITOR
We can all pretend women gently lay their names to rest and carry on the lineage of their hubby’s family, but how much more obvious does it have to be for people to see that we place our own identities on the slab and give them up as a sacrifice to the happily-ever-after gods — or God, if you’re reading this in a red state. But it’s not our fault, you see. Women get born into this crazy game of Cabbage Patch Doll roulette where we are assigned two randomly selected, sometimes un-complementary, names and are expected to go on unquestioning. As we slowly start to admit the system is flawed and more and more women hyphenate
their way out the situation, there are some statistics that might have you dropping your jaw rather than your name. Women who have changed their name after marriage are generally older and less educated, according to a study from the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research. It also showed that women are not only divided this way in reality but in our minds as well. In this study, hypothetical women were described in the same way except for their decision to change their name after marriage. It was discovered that women who changed their name were viewed as less intelligent, competent and ambitious than the women who kept their last name. Not only will going through the name change alter the way women are judged but the way they are compensated as well.
According to the same article women who changed their last names were less likely to be hired into a hypothetical job and more likely to be paid less. Tina Turner once said that all she wanted was to keep her married name after an even more famously bad marriage. Looking back now, she might have been the only woman to make more money by doing so. Of course, the decision isn’t all about the green. There are some pretty strong emotional and situational taboos that go along with it. For instance, I’m sure some women adopt their sweetie’s surname as a way to make things easier for the kids or whatever. Can’t a woman ever make a decision strictly for herself? Being a child with a semiobscene last name wasn’t fun but being an adult with one isn’t really any better. My world has been one
full of mispronunciations and explanations of spelling. So ever since as I was old enough to understand that my marital status could stop stick and stones of bullying, I have been psyched to one day, essentially, change. Actually, having the opportunity to change your name is probably both the weirdest and the coolest tradition that hasn’t died already. It’s the kind of familial thing that gets guilted upon us and then ultimately used against us. But, then again, since when is that new for women? And while I was always pretty much set upon kissing my Hass goodbye and moving on to the next, hopefully phonetically spelled, last name, the whole situation is enough to make me want to pull a Cher and just be me. Joanna Hass can be reached at opinioneditor@theorion.com
PIECE OF MIND >> What would you do if the world was going to end in 2012?
Robert Stevens
Graduate Student | anthropology
Dominic Mutto junior | recreation
“I’d do whatever I could to stop the world from ending.”
“I’d live my life to the fullest and cherish my friends as much as I could.”
“I’d sit on my porch with a bottle of Jack Daniels and say sayonara.”
“I’d preserve the human soul in digital format so it could be launched into space and preserved for others to find someday. ”
Jordan Jones
sophomore | sociology
Tara Reese
freshman | psychology