UWC- USA OCTOBER 2014

Ebola Arrives to the USA !CHARLIE THOMPSON!

(CANADA ‘16)!—————————-!

Unt i l r ecent l y, the ebo la outbreak of 2014 has been a d is tant thought for most Americans. It has been covered in the news, but to some it seemed to be a story taking place in an entirely separate world. That can no longer be said — the virus recently made a transatlantic flight from Liberia to Texas, and people are starting to realize how close to home it truly is.

The disease began its destructive path in West Africa at the end of 2013. Experts believe that it originated in Guinea, and then quickly spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. There were also 20

cases in Nigeria, but the country has since been declared free of the disease. As of October 14th, the World Health Organizat ion (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported a total of 9,216 suspected cases and 4,555 deaths.

West-African countries have suffered extensively at the hands of ebola, for multiple reasons. A lack of medical infrastructure is a large issue, and there is the problem of people trusting doctors after seeing friends disappear and never return. Even when people do seek medical help, the mortality rate of 71% doesn’t leave much room for optimism.

The original American patient was confirmed to have the ebola virus on Tuesday, September 30th. He travelled from Liberia to Texas, but showed no signs of the disease until he arrived.

CAMPUS NEWS

Read the latest instalment of Campus Culture that looks at the atmosphere on campus and the importance of taking a step back from everything to breathe. !!!!WORLD NEWS

With the growing fear of Ebola , our journalist looks at how USA should deal with the outbreak. Following this is a look at paperbacks and boos and why neither is really good for the environment. Plus, for the first time we are including a this week in technology section. !!!!OPINION

This week we dive into the world of Vikings, sorting fact from fiction. Finally, end your read with a little bit of wit from both our resident advice

Photo Credit: Credit: huffingtonpost.com)

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A message from the Editors

!Hello readers, !Midterms are finally over and this weekend gives everybody an opportunity to catch up on sleep, work or those missed conversations, the last of which is highly recommended by one of our journalists. Meanwhile, catch up on the news around the world and tune in for the latest instalments of campus humour. !Best, !!! The Editors !!!

LITERATI STAFF

THE EDITORS

Blake Anderson USA-KS

Ojaswee Rajbhandary Nepal ‘15

Charlie Thompson Canada ‘16

Sunniva Olsrud Punsvik (Norway/ Denmark ‘16)!

Izabella Pastrana USA-MO

Sage de Brum Marshall Islands ’15

FACULTY SPONSOR

Parris Bushong

WRITERSRuby McCafferty USA-VT ‘15

Isabel Skye!

USA - WI ‘16

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UWC- USA OCTOBER 2014

Campus Culture: Something in the

Air

RUBY MCCAFFERTY !(USA - VT ’15)!

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I was recently having a conversation with a very dear friend of mine. We hadn’t had the chance to catch up in a while because of all of the work and responsibility and such that c o m e s w i t h t h i r d s e m e s t e r . O u r conversation started off with a simple check-in, but ended in a poignant breakdown of campus life, and a well-

worth-it curfew strike. 

I think maybe a few of us have been having these conversations lately, or maybe it’s just me. We were lucky to have a first-year friend talking with us as well, and for the most part, he loves it, so I guess there are some (hopefully a lot) of people left that haven’t been entirely disheartened. But there’s something undeniably different about this year. Sure, third semester is difficult, but there’s something in the air that’s making it worse than usual. Even after an hour of talking, I still cannot pinpoint it. It feels a bit like a bad taste left in one’s mouth after an otherwise delicious candy. The only thing I can narrow it down to is this:

There is so much tension on this campus right now: between students, between faculty, between faculty and students. We are drenched in negativity and fail to see but the most extreme behaviors of both sides. This has presented itself in a multitude of ways. Students are being unnecessarily rude to one another for the sake of who knows what, really. Faculty

members are (perhaps unknowingly) crushing their students’ dreams by telling them that they don’t need to get in to this school or that. Students are failing be gracious on the smallest level. Plates are being forgotten on Dining Hall tables left, right, and center. Yes, these are extremes, but they are also eating away at the essence of this place, little by little. We are forcing our own self-interests and slowly letting the livelihood of our friends and of campus fall to the wayside.

This tension is stemming from many things as well: the new rule, the always-tumultuous faculty changes, the fact that our dear admissions officer and college counselor has decided to leave us, the fact that we’ve had far more rain this year than usual. All of these things are, at their essence, good, yet they have all had unintended and most likely unexpected consequences. We are in a time of change. Some of us are pushing forward, some dragging back, and the rest of us are left in the middle, attempting to keep our balance.

Maybe it is just third semester and all the stress it brings. Grading exams, taking exams, betting on our predicted grades and SAT scores so that in some numerical grace they might bring us to a brighter future. But at one point or another we have to step for a moment out of the crazed forward-motion and take a breath in whichever way we can in order to breathe a bit of life back into this place.

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He was administered to a Dallas hospital with flu-like symptoms, but this did not initially trigger any alarms. When his history was looked over, he was rushed back to the hospital by ambulance. In the two days between his hospital visits, he encountered many people, but none turned out to have contracted the disease. His family was also quarantined as a safety measure, but they were released on the 19th of October with a clean bill of health.

There has been some outrage over the CDC’s perceived lack of care in handling the disease. Two nurses have contracted ebola so far, and there has been some scrambling to find and test people who came into contact with the original patient. Fortunately, all tests have been negative, and the virus appears to be relatively contained. Texas state health officials and the CDC continue to monitor 120 people who have been in contact with the infected nurses.

Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas county Health and Human Services, advises the public not to panic. “This is not Africa," he said. "We have a great infrastructure to deal with an outbreak." Despite this, some citizens are worried that health officials are over-confident in their appraisals of the situation. Top CDC official Dr. Tom Frieden originally said there was "no doubt" in his mind that the infection would be contained to the original patient and anyone he may have had contact with.

The symptoms of the disease are extremely similar to the common flu, which could cause some hysteria among healthcare workers and citizens alike as flu season

arrives. Canadian biologist Nancy J. Sullivan has been working on a vaccine since 1997, and the latest version is 100% effective in primates. In light of recent circumstances, her work has been given much more priority. Human trials are now beginning, and are expected to be finished by early 2015.

President Obama also had something to say about the situation: "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear -- because that only makes it harder to get people the accurate information they need. We have to be guided by the science.”

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_epidemic_in_West_Africa!http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html!http://www.11alive.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/09/29/dallas-hospital-isolates-possible-ebola-patient/16461267/!

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/660867-do-not-succumb-to-

4 Sources: http://sutura.io/weekly/!

UWC- USA OCTOBER 2014

How should you be reading this?

!ISABEL SKYE!(USA - WI ‘16)!

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!People love book pages. They smell like dust and a million years of built up human experience. We use our senses to perceive our world and these; through their own living, breathing bodies, and sensations, are real to us.

So what do e-books smell like? They don’t. They are smooth, hard; they have lost their ability to bend left and right. They reject almost every bit of humanity we could think to ask from them beyond the text themselves. Water will break them.

According to The Green Press Initiative, a non-profit focused on working with publishers, newspaper industries, paper manufacturers, etc. to help lower environmental impacts of these industries, the newspaper and book industry combined consumes 125 million trees each year. This is why these books are so real and tangible to us.

However, while we see millions of trees sacrificed to the greater good of literature for print book, the same is not true of ebooks. In the case of human art, passion and written word conveyed with ebooks, we discovered the number of trees and breaths we lose. The answer was a safe none.

The natural reaction of most to such a fact was to transfer their loyalties to e-readers, whether kindle, ipad, nook or otherwise. In a poll conducted March 2014 by Harris Interactive,

54% of United States citizens read from e-books while 46% read printed books. The connotations of such a poll, after centuries of human existence and physical literature should bring about a hopeful air to the world. A hope that maybe we are finally making the right choices, maybe we are finally choosing the earth over human catering and comfort.

Yet, sadly as is with a broadly varied world of diversity and complexity, that is not the full picture of the solution or situation. Another part of the debate centers on CO2 emissions, a sensitive topic in a world constantly waged with climate change, natural disaster, heat and fear. In a recent publication by Mike Berners, one of the world’s leading experts on carbon emission, an average paperback uses 1kg CO2. This however, is a staggering jump from the usual ereader, which uses 50 kg CO2.

With this confirmed, it is absolutely clear that neither option is good. One commits us to a world of Dead Tree, the other brings us to a train station with a sign saying “you won’t find your old beloved climate here, we only have the remains of what we decided to age and destroy.”

How do we allow ourselves to remain human with a world telling us that it can’t hold us anymore? We are no longer a species of infancy; our mother’s arms are tired. She is putting us down. She is even losing the ability to hold our hands anymore. Her muscles are just too sore.

I asked her what to do and the solution was simple.

Use a library.

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UWC- USA OCTOBER 2014

The Inventors of Soccer !

SUNNIVA OLSRUD PUNSVIK!(NORWAY/ DENMARK ‘16)!

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UWC-USA is lucky to have eleven brave, strong, adventurous, intelligent, fully-fledged Vikings. To explain why these words perfectly describe what a Viking is, here are some examples. Brave, Vikings are from Scandinavia, so consider this, how much colder is it in Scandinavia compared to here? It takes so much courage to leave behind the whitest snow and perfect temperature to be a part of the UWC movement. Few can say that is not being brave. Adventurous, all of our second years are wilderness leaders. Additionally, Vidar watches Viking series and documentaries, which counts as being adventurous. They explore the dry desert of New Mexico every opportunity they get. Intelligent, scandinavians do the IB and all of us are still alive, so one can say they kick the IB’s butt and not the other way around.

I often get the question, “what is a Viking?” Well, I could give them the boring answer : Vik ings are people f rom Scandinavia during the Viking period from the end of 700 to mid-1000 AD. The Norwegians, Swedes and Danes travelled overseas to settle down on the Danish island Færøerne as well as Iceland, Greenland, some parts of Ireland, England, Scotland and Russia. Vikings are both known for having a barbaric and brutal behaviour and for having horns on their helmets. This is actually not true. There has not been one case where a helmet has been found with horns. The horns were

introduced in paintings in the 1900s. On the other hand, I could give them the best answer which may be a myth, but is still interesting; the Vikings were the inventors of soccer. They used to cut off their enemies head after a battle and then throw and kick it. That, my friends, are the Vikings.

There are some facts you might not know about Vikings. Vikings had excellent hygiene. They made combs, razors and ear cleaners from animal bones and antlers. Most Viking men spent most of their time farming. This sounds very disappointing, I know, because usually Vikings are compared to pirates, but in fact, they only stepped out of their boats by a harbour to burn down a village if they had to. Viking men were very peaceful. As you may know, Vikings are also known for their outstanding, handcrafted ships. Vikings loved their boats, and it was honourable to be interred in one after their deaths.

Now you know that Vikings were the inventor of soccer, had excellent hygiene, and were not barbaric pirates. Additionally, now you know that the eleven Vikings represented at this campus are extraordinary people.

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http://historienet.dk/civilisationer/vikingerne!

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Not only that, but it is the belief of many experts that one of the biggest things a healthy society needs is diversity. We have an innate individualism so each person can fill a specific niche. Without this we will develop an extremely unbalanced world. Our species derives strength from its diversity, the way we are all not necessarily always competing against each other, but coexisting by contributing in differing ways to society. If we are all conditioned to have similar mentalities as well as similar skill sets, then certain aspects of society will go unstably under supported while another may end up highly and competitively over saturated.

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Ask Sir E Brum !SAGE DE BRUM!

(MARSHALL ISLANDS ’15)!—————————-!

1. How do I do well in English class?

A. Be a native speaker. If this doesn’t work, try other things.

B. Talk more! As soon as you do, and if you're in UWC, you'll find yourself in a debate in no time, allowing you to understand more point of view and getting that better score in English.

C. Rap Genius. I know I might sound like Ojaswee as I advertise this app, but it is a nice one if you have time to spare. Yes, I know, your English texts aren't always one of raps that are popular nowadays, but Rap Genius has a separate tab just for literature! Don't rely on it though, because you might as well be looking at Sparknotes at this point if you do, but it is something to look at to see another's point of view. 

D. Question it all. Questions means answers, and answers means direction. Just don't be that kid that keeps questioning EVERY. SINGLE. POINT.

E. Read and reread. Reading once is nice, but as you go through class, reread some parts again. The books you read have so much in them that it may help you to go through it again.

2. Can zombies exist?

A. No. Sorry for being euphemistic. There is in fact a nice site that pops up to leave at ease zombie-fearers:

http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/why-the-zombie-apocalypse-wouldnt-happen/

Sources: Turnipseed, Stephan. "Testing Is Hurting Creativity in Classrooms | RealClearEducation." Testing Is Hurting Creativity in Classrooms | RealClearEducation. 3 June 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.!

How School's Kill Creativity. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. TEDtalks, 2006. Film.!

Yuan, Kun, and Vi-Nhuan Le. "Estimating the Percentage of Students Who Were Tested on Cognitively Demanding." (2012). Print.!

Rettner, Rachael. "Are Today's Youth Less Creative & Imaginative?" LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.!

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3. Can you describe why the internet is so crappy?

A. Allow me to put it into terms as easily understood as I can:

Imagine the waves that carry your information and message-delivering snails. These snails travel all over the world like gossip carriers who carry information from computer to computer. These snails then come to wherever it is that your wing factory (wi-fi access point) is and are given wings to then fly over to your device, begging to know the gossip of the world. The snails though, after travelling such a long distance forget a few details here and there, so instead of remembering it all in one little guy, they have a whole army of snails bringing pieces to of your request to you, fitting the puzzles together to make something like a web page. Of course, with all these snails rushing towards your device, things start to take a while and sometimes they don’t have the best roads to travel through to get to your device. These snails also find it tricky when they have a road to travel for not just one person asking for gossip, but over 200! Things get a little more chaotic on their way over and they get a little overwhelmed on their travels.

B. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network.htm This works too. . .

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4. How do I make sure that I get to class on time?

A. Live in the past. No, I don’t mean go around on a dinosaur watching some youtube video on a VCR, but set your watches to 5 or 10 minutes ahead of time. The shock sometimes is what people need to propel them to that Parris or Travis class that NO ONE wants to be late for.

B. Have alarms out the wazoo. I don’t even know what a wazoo is, but have lots of alarms! If that standard marimba tone on your ipod doesn’t cut it, change it to your favorite song. You might as well learn the lyrics to that Taylor Swift song that you secretly listen to while running full speed to class.

C. Get a timely friend in each class. With their timely guidance and your. . .enthusiasm. . .you’ll both make it to class minutes before it begins with plenty of time to laugh at those who do not experience the same fortune that you do. Just make sure that this doesn’t backfire and you end up making the both of you late.

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Oh, um, excuse me, hello. I’m sorry to interrupt you, but, uh, according to my calendar—and correct me, please, if I’m wrong—MIDTERMS ARE OVER, YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH.

Let us rejoice, friends, for an exam break is upon us (well, unless you have another test coming up soon, in which case, that’s unfortunate, but I believe in you. You can do it). This tiny break has come just in time, too, because our venerable comrades in arms (read: the RAs, Student Council, and our student representatives for the issue) have finally emerged (mildly) victorious in this exhaustingly drawn-out, two-month battle of the most epic proportions: we have won back our dayrooms. It seems as if it was just yesterday when we were told we could no longer visit each others’ rooms after check on school nights. But look at us now. The new procedures and regulations have been enacted this past Monday, and it’s thrilling, really, because we can all enjoy a mere fraction of the rights and freedoms we had LAST year*.

It’s amazing, though, that we’re already halfway through the semester. I mean, predicted grades have officially been submitted, so THAT’S exciting. Second-years: chin up, okay. The only thing predicted scores show is that we’re closer to washing our hands clean of the questionable bureaucracy that is the International Baccalaureate Organization. And first-years? First-years, please be available with love and support and jokes and chocolate for those of us less than enthused about our results.

*Okay, no, I’m kidding. I am ultimately very appreciative of the incredible student effort and all that has been done to make the best of and handle the issue.

On a brighter, more jovial, more interesting note than pure, boring academics, however, IPs are happening this weekend! For those of you still muscling your way into the highly coveted, elite social space dubbed “in the know,” IP stands primarily for “Izabella Pastrana,” and it also stands secondarily for “Independent Project.” In this case, we’re using the lesser known but equally respectable “Independent Project.”

You see, this weekend, our ridiculously rad IB Theater students are slotted to present to those of us lucky enough to be on campus at the time (sorry, Wilderness trip—maybe next time) their super cool micro-or-not-so-micro theatrical productions. These crazy talented individuals have put together their own bona fide casts and crews and have directed everything, and it al l sounds real ly entertaining. I also hear that Caroline Jones is set to deliver an absolutely stunning performance or two in Bryce and JC’s IPs at some point in the next few days. You should all go see her, okay, because—knowing her track record—I doubt she’ll live up to the hype (I’m joking).

In conclusion, go watch your friends’ IPs! Forget about school; who needs it anyway?**

!**Only forget about school for a little bit. Education is somewhat important.

The Flipside

the FLIPside

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