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Show Will hand sanitizer do the job? MARK EVANS Opinions writer The halls are now populated with dozens of hand sanitizer stations dispensing the clear liquid that is supposed to save you from a debilitating week of missed classes resulting from swine flu. It seems self-explanatory what a hand sanitizer should do for you - sanitize your hands; in other words, get rid of all the germs. This is what many hand sanitizers do, but there are some that actually create an environment where bacteria and those "bad germs" can multiply and spread. The CDC has said that for a hand sanitizer to be effective it must have at least 60 percent alcohol content. This is not always the case with some of the cheaper sanitizers. Sanitizer, if it meets the CDC criteria can be effective in killing the flu virus. But there is something else that may influence your decision to use sanitizers and to what extent: What else does that precious liquid kill on your hands and does killing it change the way your body responds to sicknesscausing germs? Just as putting our wonderfully strong white blood cells - which are responsible for identifying and killing the bad bacteria and germs in our body - into a Petri dish with hand sanitizer would kill them, there are natural defenses on our skin that also die when placed in contact with sanitizers. These germs actually protect against other common, but far worse bacteria that can be found on the epidermis. Removing this protective shield may actually make you more susceptible. Experts have noted that this may or may not be a negative thing. But, seeing that everything dies when we use hand sanitizers, let's hope that the bad germs don't come back faster than the good ones. If that were the case we would basically be clearing the "handscape" for pesky bad germ residents. Avoiding the flu may come at the price of catching something else. Hand sanitizer isn't the only . % ^^.^ culprit. Antibacterial soap is perhaps even more problematic. Very few people wash their hands long enough for the antibacterial effects to actually work, and on top of that, the general consensus among those scientists who nerdily, but thankfully, study these kinds of things is that adding antimicrobial chemicals to soap does not improve the germ-ravaging effects already inherent in soap. In other words, you'd do just as well with a (pleasantly moisturizing) bar of Dove. In addition, the common antimicrobials placed in hand soap have detrimental effects in and of themselves. One has an effect similar to testosterone. If people start getting hairier in the next few decades, we will know why. If you come in contact with a deadly strain offluwhen you don't have your handy sanitizer with you, there will certainly be a dispenser of sanitizer or soap nearby. But be forewarned: It comes at a cost. M^B DIANA PRATT/ UVU Review This week's word: Reverse Discrimination Correcti6nary How to avoid word murder. € Laptops: Distraction or learning aid in classes? ALEXSOUSA Opinions writer MATTHEW A. JONASSAINT Asst. Opinions editor I keep hearing classmates claiming to being discriminated against. It's usually a dramatic story involving a sort of pathetic solitude in the high school cafeteria or in a Carl's Jr. and rarely getting more than a slanted look from the table of blacks on the other side of the room. Sometimes it's a different setting, involving a speeding ticket and a nonwhite cop. It may be an expression of indignation that Native Americans can receive scholarship money from tribes that is not available to everyone. But there's simply no such thing as reverse discrimination. The retort: "Well, EVERYBODY'S discriminated against" If everyone is discriminated against, then what use is the word? Misuse of the word is precisely why there's misunderstanding with its meaning. To be sure, there are instances of prejudice that can, but do not always lead to exclusion from a group. There are two words for this: intolerance and, when it reaches levels of outright hate and violence,' bigotry. ' Bigoted attitudes are often mistaken for discrimination. Discrimination is when a socially constructed identity is a subject of intolerance and/or bigotry. There are certainly categories in our society, such as gender, race and sexuality that are You, sir, are black. Illustration by Spencer Shell/ UVU Review socially constructed. Most importantly, discrimination involves some form of structural violence - be it racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, or heterosexism - where the discriminated are hindered or prevented in some way from providing for themselves and their most basic needs. That is to say that getting suspicious looks from a table of Koreans in the cafeteria and being too afraid to sit with them is not discrimination, and neither is getting slammed doors and violent threats on your LDS mission. You have alternative choices that enable you to do something about the situation. But getting turned away by restaurants or being attacked on your way to work, and being silenced by law and having no recourse? That's systematic intolerance that directly affects your livelihood. That's real discrimination. There likely aren't many members of the majority here in Utah who have had their livelihood threatened because of bigoted attitudes and intolerance based on their race. Personally I've been called racial slurs, been mistreated by police, been followed to my apartment after kissing my boyfriend goodnight by people who wanted to hurt me, and experienced other prejudices. That doesn't mean I've got the market cornered on human suffering or that, as a nonwhite person, I can't be racist (or, in my own way,"hetero"-phobic). But there's a huge difference between those things and actual discrimination, and it does mean it's extremely disrespectful when those who are privileged in this town by virtue of their race, sexuality and religion (and sometimes wealthy upbringing) start complaining that the advantages society and mainstream culture has granted them are being somehow threatened. So next time you feel like you're getting weird looks from the non-white students in the cafeteria, either get up and go make friends, or get up and leave. And more importantly, unless you've had your well being threatened by institutional intolerance, do those who have actually experienced discrimination a favor and don't call it "reverse discrimination." So, it looks like MacBooks are "in." Every classroom has the handful of students that have them resolutely centered on their desks. But the person sitting behind you probably doesn't think it's used to benefit your academic experience. MacBooks aren't the only perpetrators; this academic abandon seems pretty universal for the entire I-have-a-laptop-totake-notes crowd, which is a good portion of our generation. It looks like one in every five is actually doing something productive, which productivity may or may not have anything to do with the class. The point is: Gross use of technology does little to actually aid in the educative process. There really isn't much to be done about it aside from a collective overhaul. After all, surfing the web during class time is only a more advanced (and much more distracting) version of doodling in a notebook. We couldn't very well ban the use of laptops in classes, but there is something inherently more distracting (and destructive) in laptop abuse than sketching stick figures. Something has to be done, but it seems the only effective cure is nothing short of a generational wake-up call. They call us "digital natives," the twentysomethings and younger who grew up or came of age in this digital epoch. The use of laptops in the classroom is a symptom of this injurious rewiring. We've become so accustomed to a bombardment of technology we can't even sit through a class without checking cyberspace, I.M.ing a friend, or downloading the latest Lady Gaga video. We've collectively reprogrammed ourselves to demand distractions. Like a virus, we've contracted attention deficit disorders that require our constant diversion from everything, including our education and often human interaction. Sly web-users are not so different from the guy in the back corner of the class who has his Skullcandy slung modishly over his ear with his Ipod turned up just a little too loud and simply doesn't care. Does anybody else remember how much we're paying a semester for this education? Forget the costs, does anyone ; remember that we're the future of civilization? We're techno-zombies avoiding responsibility by absorbing ourselves in trivial web-communities while we should be bettering ourselves and furthering our education. If your laptop is set out on your desk so you can zone out of the lecture and do anything other than better the educational experience, then do our generation a favor and turn it off, and place it carefully into your backpack- We may not go down as the dumbest generation yet. |