The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 16, 2009 Page: 3 of 20
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Op-Ed
Outer Loop hazard to drivers, pedestrians
A substantial hazard exists
that surrounds all of Rice Univer-
sity: the Outer Loop. As someone
who has traveled and crossed the
Outer Loop several times, whether
merely for exercise or as a pathway
to reach an alternate destination, I
am fully aware of the large number
of pedestrians who make use of it
daily. For anyone who uses it, the
sacred Outer Loop serves as an ex-
cellent jogging and walking lane, a
convenient route to different park-
ing lots and a barrier that, coupled
with the hedges, shields Rice from
some of Houston's more unsavory
aspects. But the Outer Loop itself
presents several dangers to both
the students who use it and the
drivers who cross it getting in and
out of Rice.
the most seasoned drivers, and
waiting for a small opening to speed
in or out of one of the busy streets
surrounding campus can make any-
one nervous. Drivers in this state of
mind tend to rush through the in-
tersections, paying more attention
to oncoming cars then to the mul-
titudes of pedestrians coming from
both right and left.
Christine Pao
During the nighttime and early
morning hours, the Outer Loop
becomes a deadly intersection of
pedestrians and cars. I frequently
have been the passenger inside a
car whose driver nearly crashed
into an innocent jogger, a incident
caused not only by the alarming
lack of light but also by the general
dynamics of the Outer Loop. The
first impulse might be to blame the
driver for his recklessness, but it is
not completely his fault.
For one thing, the traffic of
Houston is enough to stress even
a
Other areas [of
the Outer Loop]
remain pitch
black, and for the
motivated citizen
who likes to run or
walk late at night
or really early in
the morning, it
can be especially
dangerous in the
dark.
99
Additionally, although the nu-
merous trees make for a magnifi-
cent view of the splendor of nature,
they are not so great at providing
clear views of pedestrians. I am by
no means advocating for Rice to cut
down every single tree lining the
Outer Loop, but merely calling to
attention the fact that they can be
incredible inhibitors to visibility.
Perhaps if there were fewer trees
immediately surrounding campus
entrances, drivers would not have
to worry about obstructed views
of pedestrians.
Walkers and runners, on the
other hand, despite the few signs
telling them to yield to traffic, do
not constantly remain attentive to
incoming and outgoing cars — it's
just not something they usually
have on their minds, considering
the many distractions they have to
deal with like iPods, other runners
and their dogs. Thus, 1 find the ba-
sic setup of the Outer Loop to be in-
herently dangerous, not garnering
the attentiveness necessary from
either drivers nor pedestrians.
Recently, however, Facilities, En-
gineering and Planning created a
project to install light fixtures along
the Outer Loop, a move that will dras-
tically improve visibility and decrease
the risk of collision. I applaud FE&P
staff for recognizing the hazardous
lack of regular lighting. While some
sections of the Outer Loop are well-
lit, other areas remain pitch black,
and for the motivated citizen who
likes to run or walk late at night or
early in the morning, it can be quite
dangerous in the dark — especially
with the tendency for drunk drivers to
operate vehicles during these hours.
Basically, until FE&P installs these
new light fixtures, 1 believe the Outer
Loop will be an essentially danger-
ous path to take for jogging, running
or even mere walking. I caution both
pedestrians and drivers to pay atten-
tion to each other while making use
of Rice's gravel-paved border.
Christine Pao is a Martel
College freshman.
New hygiene product can aid green effort
Every time I tune into the increas-
ingly prevalent environmental news,
everywhere from documentaries to
commercials to blogs to newspaper
headlines, I tend to feel like the sky is
falling and the world is burning (or,
rather, melting). It's easy to feel like
there is nothing we, as mere players
in such a vast system, can do to make
a difference. But there is. There is the
truism of "recycle, reduce, reuse,"
and while they are all as important
as ever, the "reduce" facet deserves
more attention than it normally gets.
Well, maybe it is time to look into this
"reduce" concept.
Rachel Solnick
Luckily, there is something rela-
tively new on the horizon that most
people probably don't know about
yet. And you'll have to excuse me,
guys, because although the environ-
mental issue affects all of us, this
column is mainly directed at women.
Enter: the menstrual cup.
This small silicon cup looks like a
bell or a half of a lemon and is used
like a tampon, but it is reusable so
there is no plastic applicator or cot-
ton wad for the trash. While it is not
a big player in the grand scheme of
the environmental problem, there is
no doubt that the millions of women
in industrialized countries using dis-
posable feminine hygiene products
create vast amounts of unnecessary
trash that strains the sewage systems
and waste disposal every month.
To give an example, Tampax brand
tampons, only a portion of the world-
wide market, are used by over 100 mil-
lion women and are sold in 150 coun-
tries. The average woman will spend
around $1,300 on female hygiene
products and will use around 9,000
tampons or pads in her lifetime.
If this isn't shocking to you on an
individual basis, consider 3.2 billion
of the women on the planet, many of
whom had not used such products in
the past, but with continual industri-
alization of countries like India and
China, will start to do so and contrib-
ute to the needless pollution. In the
United States alone, an estimated 12
billion sanitary pads and 7 billion
tampons are disposed of each year.
Throwing numbers around can have a
numbing effect on attention spans, so
just consider this: None of those wads
of cotton and tubes of plastic has to
be dumped into landfills, clogged in-
side toilets and washed out to sea if
women simply switched to reusable
menstrual cups instead.
A survey conducted by an entrepre-
neurship class at Rice two years ago
found that 88 percent of respondents
would like to try a menstrual cup. The
newly instated Green Funds Commit-
tee could be a prime motivator in get-
ting women to use these products. Wi-
ess College's Green Fund Committee
and college approved subsidizing one
fourth of the cost of buying a $20 "Di-
vacup" from Amazon.com for all inter-
ested Wiess women. Considering the
high interest and the environmental
benefits to reap from the switch from
tampons to menstrual cups, other col-
leges' Green Fund committees should
follow Wiess's example.
If you are wondering why the
menstrual cups are not more popu-
lar, it's in part because they are
relatively new - the rubber Keeper
was introduced in the late '80s, the
Mooncup from the United Kingdom
in 1996 and then the Canadian Diva-
cup only in 2003. Also, unlike Tam-
pax and Always, which are part of
the billion-dollar Proctor & Gamble
Corporation, these menstrual cup
companies do not spend tens of
millions on advertising campaigns.
Also, it is only recently that talking
about menstruation has become less
of a taboo topic. Remember poor Car-
rie's confusion about her period in
the 1976 movie Carrie?
a
Admittedly,
tampons are more
convenient, but I'd
rather not flush
$680 down the
toilet.
99
If the environmental reasons are
not enough to convince you, on a more
personal note Divacups are made from
medical grade silicon and have had no
reported cases of the Toxic Shock Syn-
drome that is associated with tampon
use. Divacups cost $20 dollars and last
you 10 years; compare this to the rela-
tive $700 you would spend on tampons
for the same length of time. Admittedly,
tampons are more convenient, but I'd
rather not flush $680 down the toilet.
It used to be that the phrase
"tree hugger" was a derogatory term
for environmental fanatics. Now
www.treehugger.com is one of the top
sustainability blogs on the Web. It is
time we all realized that this trend of
being environmentally conscious is not
about being a liberal, a hippie or an ac-
tivist, it's about having a conscience.
Rachel Solnick is a Wiess
College junior.
Science and faith not totally
separate, exclusive domains
This winter break, I ran into a
peculiar type of person. Most of you
know the type I'm talking about — the
one who thinks Ann Coulter is funny
and who honestly has more respect
for the talk show hosts who ridicule
our politicians than the politicians
themselves. The type who associates
to the point of confusion the ideals
of our Founding Fathers, those of the
Republican Party and those of the Bi-
ble. The worst part was that they were
related to me.
David Sorge
On the other side of things,
though, are people like my roommate
from last year, whose devotion to the
Democratic Party was total and un-
questioning. Someone who was dis-
appointed in both Democratic candi-
dates because they were not radical
enough. Someone who seemed to
take the highly polemic work of Rich-
ard Dawkins at face value.
Both have something in common,
besides being closely associated
with me. Both share a perspective of
seeing themselves as a persecuted
minority in a country quickly fall-
ing to the other side. Welcome to the
Culture Wars.
No one is really sure when or
how the Culture Wars began. Some
people point to the Scopes trial
and its media coverage. Others, to
the politicization of the Evangelical
movement. While it is valuable to
look at the history of this "war," it is
the intellectual process that is more
important. After all. the intellectual
process is the one we are in danger
of replicating.
When I refer to the intellectual
process, I am talking about the kind
of thinking my father ran into in one
of his biology professors. You see, my
father went to a Christian college, and
as part of his pre-medical degree had
to take evolutionary biology. During
office hours he asked his professor
how he dealt with teaching evolution
while being a Christian. The answer:
"Six days a week, I'm an evolutionist.
On Sunday, I'm a creationist."
While we laugh at this ridiculous
display, though, we ought also to
be examining ourselves. When we
separate the secular and the sacred
in our own minds, we are also sow-
ing the seeds of a secular-sacred di-
vide in society. That is to say that as
the secular and the sacred separate
in our minds, some will reject the sa-
cred, others the secular. As the two
parts of our intellectual lives cease to
inform each other, the same plays out
in a culture where two communities
form, with less and less information
passed between them. This process
breeds ignorance, and ignorance
breeds fear. And, to quote everyone's
favorite little green alien, "Fear is the
path to the dark side ... fear leads to
anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads
to suffering."
Our generation prides itself on
being different from the ones be-
fore us. We are a group that is far
more concerned with togetherness
than distance. We have to be: We
are all minorities. If we weren't,
we would quickly turn our coun-
try into another Somalia — a place
where each clan is for itself, fight-
ing for dominance over the others.
But there are more differences than
just ethnic ones. If any generation
has the chance to stop the escala-
tion of the Culture Wars, I believe
it is this one. But to do that, we
must be willing to understand each
other's world views and view them
with a mindset flexible and willing
to learn. Not only this, but we must
open the gate between the secular
and the sacred in our minds, recog-
nizing that if we were ever to grasp
absolute truth, it would not fit into
our artificial divides.
We are not the first to try this
experiment. Many, both in the pro-
fessional and academic worlds, are
finding ways to live their lives more
holistically. Rice University is privi-
leged to host a talk by one such man
next Wednesday. He is Francis Col-
lins, the former director of the Hu-
man Genome Project at the National
Institute of Health. A Christian
since the age of 27, he not only sees
no conflict between his faith and
his work, but he also brings them
together into a picture of the world
where faith informs and beautifies
science, while science gives insight
into the workings of the Creator's
mind.
Some may dismiss this perspec-
tive as that of a man trying to use the
fame of his previous success to sell
his beliefs, even after he has left his
field. This is hardly true of Collins.
He is still very much involved in the
worlds of science and public policy.
In fact, if the Sciencelnsider blog of
Science magazine is to be trusted, he
is being seriously considered as the
new director of the N1H under the
administration of president-elect Ba-
rack Obama. An appropriate move,
since he only resigned from working
for the N1H last August after working
there since 1993.
As a man who integrates both
worlds, it is not surprising that he
should break the stereotypes of each.
Collins, the scientist, challenges the
view that the supernatural should
be left out of the laboratory. Collins,
the Christian, is a strong advocate of
evolution as an explanation for man's
origins. It is not surprising then that
such a man finds it "deeply disap-
pointing that the shrill voices that
occupy the extremes of the spectrum
have dominated the stage for the past
20 years."
Rather than the shrill voices of
the extremes, it is time for us to lis-
ten to a voice like that of Collins, one
that is willing to search carefully
for answers, and find them in un-
expected places. There are two op-
portunities to hear him speak, both
on Wednesday. The first will be at
the Baker Institute at 5 p.m., where
he will be talking about science
and public life with Rice's own Neal
Lane, former director of the National
Science Foundation and assistant to
the president for science and tech-
nology. This event is an RSVP-only
event, though, so the spaces may fill
up quickly. At 7:30 p.m., he will be
speaking specifically about the ways
that science and belief have met in
his own life and work. This event
is open to everyone, and will be in
the Shell Auditorium of the Jesse H.
lones Graduate School of Manage-
ment. It is sponsored by the Veritas
Forum, a group that aims through fo-
rums like this one to help university
students explore "true life."
I look forward to these chances,
both to learn from someone who has
succeeded in reconciling what we of-
ten think of as opposites and to have
my own views challenged and even
changed. But even after the event, I
hope we can sit down together and
discuss our views, not polemically,
as our parents have often done, but
respectfully and humbly. Will you
join me?
David Sorge is a Martel
College sophomore.
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 16, 2009, newspaper, January 16, 2009; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443051/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.