The Campus Companion » Lily Crane

3 Must-See Movies You Probably Haven’t Seen Yet

Lily Crane — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:38:22 +0000

While it seems that there are countless activities to do at college, especially during the evenings, sometimes it’s nice to spend a night in every once and a while and watch a movie. But rather than fall back on the usual blockbusters, you should consider checking out these movies, which are not as well known, but are great movies and very worth watching. All three of them are comedies, and all would function well for a date, for some family time, for hanging out with some friends, or for just spending some quality time with your good ‘ol self.

Young Frankenstein:

This movie is simply hilarious. It’s a Mel Brooks movie, so its obviously great for laughs, and it is arguable his best work. It features Gene Wilder and some lesser known actors and actresses, and it is the best retelling of the Frankenstein story that I have ever seen. Don’t be turned off by the fact that the movie’s in black and white—it’s still worth seeing. Even if you chose not to watch it this summer, you simply have to watch it at some point in your life if you want to consider yourself a decent person.

Check out the trailer here

Waking Ned Devine:

I have yet to come across anyone my age that has seen this movie, which is a tragedy. Set in Ireland with an Irish cast, this movie is a feel-good comedy at its finest. Besides the occasional nudity humor (which is the funniest nudity humor I’ve seen yet), the film is highly original in its comedic value. You aren’t going to find any hunky actors in it either, as the two main characters are pushing 70. This is the kind of movie that would be great to watch with anyone—its hilarious for any age group and there are no awkward scenes that would make watching it with your family uncomfortable. It certainly isn’t your classic The Hangover type of comedy, and while I certainly did enjoy that film, I can comfortably say that this one is much better.

Check out the trailer here

Best in Show:

This classic comedy is a mockumentary about dog shows. Directed by Christopher Guest and starring Eugene Levy (the father from American Pie), Jane Lynch (the Coach from Glee), as well as some other familiar faces, this film is a really hilarious commentary on dog shows as well as the neurotic pet owners that tend to participate in them. Again, this isn’t a comedy like Superbad or Pineapple express, but a much more original one that is equally hilarious, and doesn’t need to rely on the standard people-making-stupid-mistakes-while-drunk-or-on-drugs shtick to get there.

Check out the trailer here

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Survival Tips: Freshmen Year

Lily Crane — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:10:27 +0000

Whether you went to a regular old public school, private school, or college prep school, starting college is a whole new experience. So here are some things that all freshmen should know as they being the best four years ever.

Give It Time:

If you are not in love with your school by week 2, don’t call home crying and transfer. It takes time to find your place at school. The first couple of weeks (or months, even) are almost guaranteed to be awkward because everyone is clinging desperately to every person they meet in hopes of having someone to go to meals with.

It will take some time for you to start to meet the people that you actually want to be friends with, and until this happens, college might not be as fun as you expected. Even if by the 2^nd or 3^rd month of school you aren’t loving it yet, you still gotta to stick it out. Going to college is a transition, and a big one at that. And transitions take time. If you flake out too soon, you might be missing out on what would eventually become a school you absolutely love.

Join Clubs:

By only occasionally attending class and then spending the rest of your time in your room, you’re not getting the most out of your college experience. And, chances are, you’re not making any friends. College is most likely the last chance you will have to do things like sing in a choir, play on a sports team, or be in a comedy group, so take advantage of this time! If you’re not into that kind of thing, join a discussion-based club, like an LGBTQ (lesbian-gay-bi-transgender-questioning) group, feminist alliance, or something along those lines. By being a member of a club or team you will likely make friends, you will have something to add more structure to your days, and you will gain good experience and resume builders. Just be careful that you don’t overload yourself by joining every club on campus.

Go to Class:

Just because professors don’t always take attendance, doesn’t mean you should skip class all the time. Regardless of whether they notice your absence or not, your grades will be impacted. Yes, partying is more fun than class and homework, but at the end of the day you are going to college for academic reasons, so don’t forget that. A lot of people get so carried away with their social lives that they fail their first semester. Don’t do that. It sucks to be that kid, and your parents are NOT going to be pleased, especially if you, like most of us, are paying out the ass to go to school. Additionally, if you do really poorly both semesters freshman year, you could easily get kicked out of school. So go to class. It’s really not that bad.

Don’t Get Sloppy:

The freedom afforded by college is awesome, and the partying scene is usually great. But be careful not to go too crazy. You do NOT want to be the kid that goes to the hospital the first weekend of college. Make sure you know your limits and your tolerance level before you sign up for that keg race because it’s not fun for other people to take care of you when you are stumbling drunk, and it’s also really embarrassing for you. We all have the occasional bad night, but don’t make that a habit.

The Freshmen 15 is Avoidable:

We’ve all heard of it and we’re all afraid of it, but don’t get too scared, because its not a guarantee. As long as you keep the knowledge of the freshman 15 in the back of your head all the time, it’s not that hard to prevent it. If you make relatively smart choices at the dining halls and be careful about snacking, you’ll be fine. And if you are the kind of person that has to try every different dish the dining hall serves, and if you can’t say no to excessive snacking, then just balance it out by adding in some exercise. College gyms are really accessible, and if you’re not into working out in the gym, college is also a great time to take up something new, like running, biking, or swimming. Not only will exercise help keep the pounds off, but it will also make you feel better.

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Sleepwalking and Doorlocking: An Unconventional Tale

Lily Crane — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:08:15 +0000

Lock your door at night. You probably hear that statement pretty frequently in college, especially if you live in a dorm. If you are anything like me, you’ve probably acknowledged the fact that it is good advice, and promptly ignored it. But don’t be like me. Instead, remember that this is college and anything can and will happen. So if nothing else convinces you to lock up before you go to sleep, hopefully this will.

We will call our main character Jen. Jen attends a small college and lives in the on-campus dorms. Jen is your average student—she works hard in school, has a pretty busy social life, and likes to go out and have a good time on the weekend, but never does anything too crazy.

One winter night Jen and her friends decide to have girls’ night in, and sit around in a dorm room playing drinking games and having a pretty good time. Jen has quite a few drinks, but nothing out of the ordinary. She decides to crash on her friends futon because its cold out and she doesn’t feel like walking all the way back to her dorm. She brushes her teeth, gets in her pj’s and goes to sleep.

At 7:30 am, Jen wakes up. She looks around and finds herself utterly perplexed—she has no idea where she is. She gets up and realizes that she was sleeping on the window seat in an unfamiliar room. She runs out of the room and looks at the door. Apparently it is inhabited by 3 girls she has never met in her life. Jen looks around at the other doors and realizes she is on, lets call it Brown hall, which is not the hall that that her friends room is on. She runs back to her friends room (where she went to sleep) and burst into the room to tell her friend what had happened. Her friend confirmed that last night Jen had been sleeping on the futon. Jen and her friend had no idea how Jen ended up on some strangers window seat, but they had a good laugh about it. To this day, the owners of the room with the window seat have no idea Jen slept there.

As the day progressed, things became more and more strange. Jen’s friends laughed about Jen waking up in a stranger’s room, but as the story spread, they started to hear new things. Apparently late in the night, residents of Brown hall said that some “crazy drunk chick” had been running down the hall, opening people’s doors and shouting odd greetings like “Yohooo!”.

A few friends joked that this could have been Jen, but both they, and Jen herself, doubted that this could be true because such behavior was uncharacteristic of her.

A bit later in the day, someone told Jen that not only had this “drunk chick” on Brown hall shouted into peoples rooms, but she also ran into one students room and pushed his very tall wardrobe over. The wardrobe was in front of the student’s bed, so it fell down and stopped inches in front of his face.

Jen refused to believe that it could possibly have been her that, not only slept in a stranger’s room and ran shouting through a hall, but also almost killed someone with their own wardrobe.

By the end of the day, multiple sources confirmed that the girl they had seen running through the hall had indeed been Jen. And then Jen had to face the extremely awkward situation of apologizing the kid who she almost killed (who found the entire incident to be quite hilarious), even though she had no memory of doing it. And, since the school Jen attends is so small, she had the pleasure of sharing a class with this student in the spring, which was uncomfortable at best. She also had to deal with the fact that the entire school heard about the incident and all the students found it so hilarious, that Jen became known around campus as “that crazy girl from Brown hall”.

Now, if the students on Brown hall had locked their doors that night, they wouldn’t have had a “crazy drunk chick” barging into their rooms, a random triple would not have had a “crazy drunk chick” sleeping on their window seat, and one student might not have been almost killed by his own wardrobe. While the mystery of Jen’s sleepwalking terrorism continues to perplex her and her friends, they at least have learned to lock their doors at night because you really never know what’s going on in the night on a college campus.

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Know Your News, Week 10: TCC Current Events Update

Lily Crane — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:10:04 +0000

North Korean Olympians Face Additional Pressure

We’ve all seen the emotional breakdowns that some athletes have when their dreams of gold are dashed by big losses. But for North Korean Olympic athletes, the consequences of a loss might go beyond the empty place on their mantle where they wanted a gold medal to be. There is a lot of speculation that for North Koreans, gold medals are rewarded with items like cars and televisions—items that most North Koreans are not privy to. But losses can result in athletes being put into labor camps.

The conditions in North Korean labor camps are no picnic, either. Reports of horrible conditions, methods of torture and starvation, and extreme levels of physical labor in harsh and dangerous environments are common. It is not confirmed that athletes will face this kind of treatment if they fail to qualify or to win medals, but it has been speculated that such treatment was—and potentially continues to be—the case for years.

Thus far in the 2012 Games, the North Koreans are doing quite well. They have won 1 bronze and 4 golds and are placed 8^th overall. Maybe this ‘good behavior’ will mean that the whole lot of them will be exempt from the camps this year, but who knows if it will be enough to reward them with luxury items like refrigerators. Of course, they might not have any need for refrigerators, given how much the country is currently struggle to feed its population. Regardless of the results, it seems apparent that the North Koreans have additional incentives, and thus pressure, when competing. Let’s hope that they continue to do well this year, for the competitors’ sakes!

Masks are Becoming Essential Beach Wear in China

For many people in the western world, summer time is all about soaking up the sun and getting as tan as possible (up to the point where they start looking like Snookie). Sunblock is the enemy, and bikini’s get smaller and smaller each year to minimize tan lines (or at least that’s what people say…).

Head to any populous beach today and you’ll find tons of people lying about and bronzing it up. But visit any beach in China, and you’ll find yourself looking at people enjoying the sun, sand, and surf while wearing…masks? It’s a rather unsettling sight to behold, but many women chose to wear masks to protect their skin. So dedicated are they to fending off UV rays that many of them are willing to risk the fact that children run away from them in fear for the sake of solar protection.

Unlike in the western world, the Chinese place a high value on pale skin. For them, dark skin is a sigh of peasantry, as it implies that one works outside. This phenomenon has been ongoing for years, but now there are industries catering to this fetish. Parasols and high SPF sunblock are often the items of choice for preventing a tan, but now the ski mask look is becoming increasingly popular, especially among older middle-class women. And the facemasks are not exclusively a beach item. Women can be seen sporting them while riding bikes or doing other activities where they do not have a hand free to hold a parasol.

Some people will even go as far as wearing full wet suits on the beach to prevent any sun exposure. It certainly is an interesting sight to behold. The masks and suits also come in a variety of colors, like pink, green, and orange. The result of this, however, makes the women look a little bit less like out of place bank robbers and a little bit more like underweight WrestleMania competitors.

Read more here:

The New York Times- In China, Sun Protection Can Include a Mask

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“The Dark Knight Rises” Shooting: A Closer Look

Lily Crane — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:33:44 +0000

While the end of July is usually a time to talk about about summer trips and lament the upcoming school year, this year the only topic of conversation seems to be Friday’s shooting at the premier of “The Dark Knight Rises”. It continues to be a source of fear, grief, and puzzlement around the country, and with several copycat shooters thankfully detained before anything else terrible could happen, this story is sure to stay in the news rotation for weeks to come.

With 13 dead and over 60 injured, the event was one of the largest massacres in recent U.S history. But people are stirred up by more than just the death tolls. The incident has sparked controversy on several different fronts, and endless amounts of speculation are being passed on what motive suspect James Holmes could have had for these crimes.

When police arrested Holmes, they found him by his car parked behind the movie theater. They found him dressed in full bullet-proof gear, wearing a gas mask, and carrying several weapons. When they questioned him, he claimed that he was the Joker, the villain from the previous Batman film. At Holmes’s first hearing, it was revealed that he had dyed his hair varying shades of red and orange, which seemed to match the colorful appearance of the Joker.

During the hearing itself, Holmes looked quite strange—sometimes tired, sometimes wide awake, but mostly just distant. He basically looked like he was either on some kind of drug, or just entirely unable to process what was happening to him. The video of his face throughout the short hearing was enough to spark all kinds of speculation on his condition (you can watch the video here).

Some argue that he is likely suffering from mental illness. The former doctorate student is in his early 20’s – a time when specialists say that certain types of psychosis are prime to develop. Others reject the possibility of mental instability and site his potential struggles at school, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, and a recent eviction as motives. At the end of the day, this is all complete speculation, and his motives are still entirely unknown.

The real controversial stuff is the discussion of gun laws that has stemmed from this event. Holmes began acquiring guns from local stores around two months before the shootings. He also ordered many packages online, some up to four months before the event, most of which included ammunition. Those against lax gun control laws see this incident as a clear indication that the law must change. But many like to claim that such discussion is insensitive to the victims of the assault. Mayor Bloomberg, however, is one of many who continues to press on the topic, expressing his views that tighter control will prevent more incidents like this from occurring. On the contrary, many in Colorado are now taking advantage of our second amendment to purchase guns of their own. There was a massive increase in Colorado gun sales on the Monday following the shooting, as people feel that buying guns will help them protect themselves.

Romney and Obama have steered clear of this highly touchy issue, and have instead focused on giving their support to the victims and their families. It’s clear, however, that whoever is ultimately elected will have to address the underlying issues of public safety and gun control during their first term.

Another controversial topic that is beginning to be discussed is the issue of death penalty. Colorado is a death penalty state, and while Holmes’s trial will likely not occur for another year, people are already discussing their views on whether or not they think Holmes should receive the death penalty, and whether or not people feel the death penalty should be legal at all.

One thing is for certain: this incident has had, and will continue to have, a large impact on this country. Whether people are moved by the grief families are experiencing, angered by the deeds of Holmes, or passionately discussing the second amendment and its role in this shooting, this shocking and terrible event will not soon be forgotten.

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Know Your News, Week 9: TCC Current Events Update

Lily Crane — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:52:31 +0000

The 2012 Olympics

Although it feels like we have been waiting all summer, the 2012 London Olympics have finally started! While it is too soon to have any idea of who is going to win what medals and which country is going to excel in which area, here are a few fun facts about the Summer Games.

The total number of athletes participating this year is 10,500 and they are competing for 302 gold medals. A total of 2,300 medals will be awarded throughout this year’s Olympics.
While a mere century ago there were only about 40 women competing, this year the total is estimated at 4, 862—almost half of all participants.
The London’s Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 seats and 9 million tickets have been sold for various events during the course of the Games.
It cost London around 775 million dollars to build the stadium, and it cost Great Britain and estimated 9 billion dollars to stage the entire event.
This year 302 events will be featured in 26 different sports.
If Michael Phelps can win 3 medals this year, he will break the record for the most Olympic medals won by a single person. He is participating in 7 events, so he has 7 medal opportunities. The current record is held by a female Gymnast Larysa Latynina of Russia, who won 18 medals over the course of the ‘56, ‘60, and ‘64 Games.
There are only three events in which the Untied States has never won a medal: Table Tennis, Badminton, and Handball.

Now that you are loaded with some great Olympics trivia questions, go forth and enjoy the Games!

Read more here:

CNN- London Olympics by the Numbers

The Chick-Fil-A Controversy

The fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A has found itself in the center of national attention after the companies CEO, Dan Cathy, a Christian Republican, announced his company’s support for the “biblical definition of a family unit”. He unabashedly admits his opposition to gay marriage and the results have been quite interesting. Politicans and other major figures that support Dan Cathy are calling for a National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day next week, to lend their support for Cathy and the stance he is taking for his beliefs.

However, Cathy’s remarks might not be so good for business. Many are outraged by his remarks and are now staunchly boycotting the chain. The Mayor of Boston recently sent the company a rather strongly worded letter that denied its request to open restaurants in Boston, citing the city’s pride in its acceptance to homosexuals and their marriage rights.

One of the latest movements is one organized by PhD student Brian Real of University of Maryland and is a direct action against National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. His plan is to encourage individuals and organizations to donate the cost of a Chick-Fil-A meal to an organization that supports gay marriage on August 1^st (the same day as “Appreciation Day”). Real says that his idea is to try to do some good to counteract the bad that is occurring on that same day.

While expected participation in Real’s event is not as high as is expected for National Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, many other individuals and organizations are protesting in their own way. The mayor of San Francisco, just like the mayor of Boston, is also refusing to allow chains to be opened in the city, and the Jim Henson Company, which provides the toys of Chick-Fil-A, recently made a statement claiming that it will be ending its relationship with the company.

Many larger colleges and universities in the United States feature Chick-Fil-A on their campuses, and these recent events have resulted in many requests that the chains be removed. An additional protest currently being planned is National Same Sex Kiss Day A Chick-Fil-A on August 3^rd.

On another, quite shocking and interesting note, the spokesman for Chick-Fil-A, Don Perry, who oversaw around 1,600 chains across the nation, died suddenly of a heart-attack on Friday, in the midst of dealing with this new issue. Whether or not there is a relationship between the two events is currently a hot topic.

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Know Your News, Week 8: TCC Current Events Update

Lily Crane — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:13:05 +0000

Shooting in Colorado

The midnight premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado took a bad turn when a gunman opened fire on the crowds waiting to enter the theater. It was not suspected to be a terrorist incident, but police are unsure of what motivated the suspect, 24 year old James Holmes, to open fire on the audience, killing 12 people and injuring 38 more. The ages of the victims range from 3 months to 45 years old.

Witness report that the gunman appeared in the front of the theater, threw some kind of smoke bomb, suspected to be tear gas, and then opened fire. There was initially a lot of confusion as some audience members thought the gas was some kind of special effect to entertain the crowds. Some reported that they were not aware what was happening until people began to scream and run away. Hospitals in surrounding areas had their hands full, as all of those who were wounded were suffering from gunshot wounds, some minor, some critical, and some deadly.

Warner Bros. expressed their sympathies for the occurrence and for the suffering of the victims and their families. They canceled the films premier in Paris, and encouraged the New York Police to closely monitor screenings to prevent any copycat shootings.

This event certainly doesn’t help Colorado’s record of senseless massacres since Aurora is a mere 13 miles from Littleton, Colorado,the location of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which two teenagers killed 13 students and faculty members, and wounded an additional 23, before taking their own lives. Additionally, Colorado has recently suffered from terrible forest fires that have destroyed many homes and lives. Let’s hope this is the last tragedy that have to suffer this summer.

Boston Globe – An Uncertain Line Between Fantasy’s Lure, Nightmare

Huge Aquifer Discovered in Namibia

A new water source was found in Namibia that could really change the quality of life for many people living in the country.

The word ‘new’ isn’t entirely accurate, as the source is more than 10,000 years old, but the quality of the water is still good—in fact it is better than the common water supplies currently used.

Even better, this aquifer is quite vast. At the current rates of consumption it could provide water to those dwelling in northern Namibia for over 400 years. Another positive point is that the current usage is also sustainable. They will not be extracting more water than is being recharged annually. This means that not only will the aquifer last a long time, but this also reduces the risk of contaminating the source by overdrawing from it.

There are a few worries for government officials, however. The pressure that this water source is under makes it quite easy and cheap to extract, which is great for the government, but it also raises fears that unauthorized sources might try to tap in. Random drilling, especially by those without knowledge of this specific aquifer, could be quite dangerous because the aquifer sits below a smaller, salty aquifer. There is a good possibility that someone not complying with the regulations of the government could cause the two aquifers to leak into each other. If the salt water found a way into the non-salt water, it would completely contaminate the source, and would be a huge loss. Hopefully the severity of this risk will be realized, and people will decide to follow the rules.

Improved School Lunches

When we think back on public school lunches, we recall those red plastic trays—one side filled with some sort of fried meat (God I hope it was actually chicken) and the other side filled with vegetables, although it was often a source of entertainment to try and discern what type of vegetable was actually in the mushy, yellow-ish green pile provided. While the food was hardly ever edible, it was always a point of solidarity. We all suffered together, and now we can look back and joke about it.

But during the past year the Department of Agriculture has passed a new law requiring school breakfasts and lunches to improve, calling for fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, and low fat milks.

This week the School Nutrition Association held a conference where they taught vendors how to cook with certain herbs, and how to make some foods from scratch. These changes are all part of the requirements to meet certain caloric and sodium levels, levels that were not attainable with the standard throw-it-in-the-fryer technique that has dominated schools for so many years.

Nutrition experts are optimistic that these changes will not only help kids eat healthier lunches, but it will also open them up to more fruits and veggies, and encourage them to eat these foods outside of the cafeteria. While lunchtime might now be an affair in which children eat, I’m sure much of the entertainment I recall from my school days will be lost. I guess kids won’t be playing “bounce the “patty””, “identify this “vegetable””, and “name this meat” anymore.

Read more here:

New York Times- School Menus Get a Fresh Look

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Revamp Your Wardrobe

Lily Crane — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:59:02 +0000

If you are anything like me, you always want to buy new clothes because you get sick of the ones you own after about the 4^th time you wear them.Making alterations to clothes that you have but don’t wear often is a lot easier than it sounds. I hardly know how to sew a stitch and creativity is not my forte, but I’ve had a lot of success making changes to my clothes. Plus, if you work with clothes you have but don’t wear, it doesn’t matter if you mess up, because you weren’t planning to wear it anyways.

This is a shirt made larger by adding fabric to sides

There are many different ways you can alter clothes. In all likelihood your weight has changed since starting college. You may have gained weight since high school and have trouble fitting into some of your clothes, or maybe you gained that freshman 15, bought a whole new wardrobe, and then lost it all, leaving yourself with clothes that are baggy or fit weird. Either way, if you have clothes that don’t fit you as well as they used to, you can pretty easily fix that.

Clothes that are too small:

If you have a t-shirt (this works best with a plain colored one) that is too small, one trick you can try is cutting the shirt straight up from the side up to the sleeve on both sides. Then you can find some fabric that goes well with the shirt, and sew the two sides of the shirt you just cut onto it, thus adding more fabric to the shirt and giving yourself more room in it.

Clothes that are too big:

It’s easier to find ways to make too big clothes fit again. A trick with shirts is taking them in at the back. One fun design to try is adding buttons to the back of a shirt. You can do this pretty simply, starting at the center of the back of the shirt. You can then pull in the fabric a little bit from each side so that the two sides line up on top of each other, pulling the shirt tighter. This usually means the fabric with pull into a V and bunch at the top of the shirt, but this can look pretty stylish with some shirts.

This is the back of a shirt that was pulled in and fastened with buttons to make it smaller

You can either sew it just like that, or you can add a few buttons to make it look extra chic. And since you won’t need the buttons to actually function, you can sew them on directly, which is much easier than making buttonholes.

Other shirts (or even tight skirts) can be made smaller in a less noticeable way. You can simply find the seam, cut it, and re-sew it, but with the fabric pulled tighter. This is totally doable by hand, but it is a bit easier and faster to do with a sewing machine, if you have one.

Clothes that fit you, but not your style:

I’ve had a lot of success with cutting dresses, especially those with cinched waists. If you cut them above the waist, you can wear the top as a shirt or crop-top and sometimes the bottom can even work as a skirt.

If you’ve got stuff you don’t wear because you don’t like it anymore, try it on and play around with ways you could change it. Maybe you cut a shirt into a crop top to wear with high-waisted pants. Or maybe you cut the bottom of a shirt and fringe it to give it more of ahippie look. Don’t forget about the beauty of cut-off shorts as a way to save an undesirable pair of pants!You don’t have to have any clothes making experience to change your own clothes. Just try a bunch of different things! The worst that can happen is that you ruin something you don’t wear anymore anyways.

Plus, you can always take the scraps of fabric that you’ve cut and turn those into something else, like patches for a pair of pants or headbands, bracelets, or necklaces. Not only are you creating some new looks for yourself, but you are also going to seriously impress your friend when they ask you where you got your really awesome new shirt and you nonchalantly tell them you made it yourself.

This is the bottom of a denim dress, that now functions as a high-waisted skirt

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Know Your News, Week 7: TCC Current Events Update

Lily Crane — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:40:41 +0000

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Debris from the Japanese tsunami that occurred last year is starting to arrive on the shores of the western U.S. The range of the types of debris varies in size from confetti-sized pellets of plastic to entire shipping docks. The debris that is arriving now is only the very beginning of it, with more and more expected to wash ashore every day.

However, the trash washing ashore is not the greatest of our worries. A vast majority of the massive amounts of debris from Japan will never reach our shores—instead it will become part of the already expansive Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an immeasurable amount of debris caught in currents in the Pacific Ocean. This floating pile is so large and scattered that no accurate measurements can be found, but one estimate is that it is larger than the entire state of Texas. It has been growing for the past 40 years, and the addition of the debris from the tsunami is only making it larger. The material that makes up this patch is quite diverse. They range from fishing nets, large chunks of plastic, as well as items like soccer balls and plastic bags. Then, there are also many tiny bits of plastic, ranging in size from pellet sized to fine, confetti-like pieces.

The real problem with the garbage patch is the effects it has on marine life. The small bits of plastic are extremely hazardous to fish of various sizes (because they ingest this plastic), birds, and any animals that consumes fish or birds (yes, that includes humans).

Additionally, the swirling masses of plastic are also sinking down to the ocean floor, destroying habitats and creating new, unnatural ones. The spread of invasive species, which can do an extensive amount of damage to an ecosystem, is also increased with this garbage patch, as organisms are carried from one place, like Japan, to another, like the middle of the pacific, by living on these chunks of plastic.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been a huge concern to environmentalists for decades, and with no solution in sight, the Patch, as well as those concerns, continues to grow.

Severe Drought Strikes

The United States is currently experience severe drought due to the high temperatures and low levels of rainfall that much of the country has been experiencing. As of this past week, 61% of the lower 48 states are experiencing conditions of drought. But hot weather and low water levels are not the only results of these conditions. Heat waves and severe storms are occurring across the country, increasing the risk of wildfire with each day (some states have already seen devastating wildfires, which usually do not occur until later in the summer).

As a result, crops are suffering throughout the country.Many Midwestern states are reporting the poorest growing conditions since 1988. Corn is the main crop to worry about. Over 30% of corn-growers in the primary 18 corn-growing states report very poor conditions.

Additionally, over 1,000 counties in 26 states have been declared disaster areas, indicating that the drought is severe enough that they qualify for low-investment emergency loans from the Department of Agriculture.

Wildfires are not uncommon in this country, but drought conditions have caused over 3 million acres of land to be ravaged by fires in the last 3 weeks alone.

Some southern states, particularly those in desert areas, have started putting limits on daily water consumption, to ensure that there is enough water to go around. The limits are not severe, but they are enforced to prevent people from using water to, for example, water lawns.

As the summer progresses, it is also likely that the price of meat, fruits, and vegetables will increase, as more and more water is required for the growth of these products. And keep in mind that it is only July. Who knows what conditions will be like as the hottest month of summer approaches.

The post Know Your News, Week 7: TCC Current Events Update appeared first on The Campus Companion.

Know Your News, Week 5: TCC Current Events Update

Lily Crane — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:49:32 +0000

Dissecting the Affordable Care Act

On this past Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, and will be upheld. This act, which is often called ObamaCare, is meant to make health care more affordable, accessible, and secure to more Americans. This ruling has sparked discussions around the country—some are heralding it as Obama’s finest achievement, and others believe that it is too close to socialism and is Obama’s greatest mistake, surely ending his chances for reelection. But many people don’t actually know that this act entails, so here is a rough breakdown:

For college students, one of the most significant aspects of this Act is that it allows all young adults under the age of 26 to remain on their parent’s health insurance plans. While some young adults have no problem finding secure, health-insurance providing jobs right upon graduating college, not all of us are that lucky, so this provides us with some extra time to get our lives together before we have to start dealing with insurance payments.

Another major aspect of this Act is that it will offer more affordable health care plans to the roughly 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured. States are responsible for coming up with low cost options to provide to the uninsured, which will go into effect starting in 2014.

Preexisting health conditions had previously been a problem for many Americans, because health insurance companies would refuse coverage to those with a condition that might be costly to them. Now, insurance companies are not allowed to discriminate on any preexisting conditions, and they are not allowed to charge you more if you are a woman (another common problem). On this same line, Obama promises that health insurance companies that cover those with serious illnesses are no longer allowed to jack-up coverage prices for those with severe or long-term illnesses.

One of the more controversial aspects of the Act is that it mandates that all Americans obtain minimum health insurance coverage. If they fail to do so, they must pay a penalty. This is legal as it functions like a tax—for those that can afford health care but chose not to purchase it, the penalty is like a tax. This falls under the ruling that all Americans must participate in the market for medical care.

Essentially, the Affordable Care Act prevents insurance companies from excluding people from coverage because they fear that certain people will be too expensive to cover. Simultaneously, it provides more Americans with access to health care they can afford. This act is hailed as an over-due victory for people with serious, long-term illnesses, youth under 26 who now have extended coverage, and for the low-income citizens who previously had no access to healthcare.

CNN: What the Health Care Ruling Means to You

Saturday’s Extra Second

I hope you had big plans for this weekend, because it was a special one. This past weekend was actually longer than all the other weekends this year. On Saturday night, an entire extra second was added to the clock just before midnight. Okay, so the weekend was only longer by a second, but every second counts, right?

The reason for this ‘leap second’ was to synchronize the world’s atomic clocks to accommodate for the gradual slowing of the Earth’s rotation. The atomic clocks, which are in charge of keeping time extremely accurately, are actually almost too accurate. They are so precise that they do not account for less constant rotation of the Earth. So this extra second works just the same way as the extra day in a leap year does—it keeps the clock in sync with how the Earth is actually rotating around on its axis, just like the extra leap day keeps the calendar in sync with the Earth rotating around the sun.

Although they are not commonly know, leap seconds have been added on a somewhat irregular basis over the years since the 1970s. The reason for this is that the Earth is rotating about 2 milliseconds slower than it was 100 years ago. This isn’t some side effect of global warming or anything, it’s simply a natural process that has been occurring for millions of years. When the dinosaurs roamed, the Earth was likely taking closer to 23 hours to make one full rotation.

So unless you are highly ambitious, you probably only managed to squeeze another blink into your extra second, but keep in mind that over the years, these seconds to make a difference. Not really for you, but for keeping our time accurate. If overlooked for long enough, the time for the sunrise might start getting closer to sunset, and eventually winter could start looking a lot more like spring.

The post Know Your News, Week 5: TCC Current Events Update appeared first on The Campus Companion.