RAWR | 4.11.2014 by rawr

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4.11.2014 Vol. 4 No. 25

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;my vote: hipster zombie apocalypseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

cotsbots

page 4

humans v. humans

page 7

apocalypse speakout

page 8

cover art by aly soto | rawr

the argonaut

horoscopes

your work in rawr

Aries 3/21-4/19

illustration

emily vaartstra | rawr

With all the ash flying around, you may want to invest in a couple of scarfs or raid your nearest hospital for surgical masks. The worst thing that could happen is you surviving the apocalypse and then dying from choking on ash.

photography mixed media

Taurus 4/20 - 5/20

paintings

You’ve had a couple of close calls with zombie attacks lately. It’s too bad you didn’t watch more episodes of “The Walking Dead” for zombie slaying pointers when you had the chance.

sculptures short fiction poetry non-fiction

Gemini 5/21 - 6/20 When the temperature drops from 65 to eight degrees in a matter of minutes, grab food, blankets, water, matches and download all 10 seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy” on your tablet before retreating to an underground haven.

rawr is an alternative weekly publication covering art, culture, campus life and entertainment.

Cancer 6/21 -7/22

On the cover: “Davids’ Building” by Davidlharlan is licensed under CC By - SA 3.0

Three days of complete darkness was scary enough but now there are glowing beams coming from the sky. If you don’t want to be caught in the alien disco party you better start running — not that it will help.

Email:arg-arts@uidaho.edu

Leo 7/23 - 8/22 Time to buy a hazmat suit before

you discover you actually aren’t immune to the airborne virus that is causing jellybeans to grow on human flesh.

Virgo 8/23 - 9/22 You better repent for your sins now because if you thought the seven-headed dragon was scary, the Four Horsemen and Leviathan are still to come.

claire whitley

“Endgame” by Rise Against Rise Against brings a hard rock feel to the end of the world. “Endgame” is about the cities falling apart and people turning on each other spreading fire in their wake. The

Capricorn 12/22 - 1/19 Humans may be at war with the mutated pretzel-bats but it is a good thing you trained long, hard hours in the art of catching flying food.

Aquarius 1/20 - 2/18

The breaking news about gigantic spiders and 50 foot long dachshunds invading towns across the world isn’t a hoax. I’d suggest befriending the dachshunds over the spiders.

Now that your clones are doing all the hard work for you, you’ve had more time to do things that matter like sit on the couch playing videogames. Before you know it, your clones will kick you out of the house telling you to get a job.

Scorpio 10/23 - 11/21 If you can buy yourself a ticket to the colony on the Mars, you’ll be able to escape imminent damage from the meteor heading straight to Earth.

Sagittarius 11/22 - 12/21 Your new high-tech microwave

message in the chorus is that through all the mess, people still need to feel and rely on each other.

a pest. The 1967 band hit the creepy apocalypse on the head.

“The Four Horsemen” by Aphrodite’s Child

Imagine Dragons literally took the chemical apocalypse and made a song out of it. The opening of the song is all about waking up to a desolate wasteland of ash and dust. However, it can be argued this song was created to show that people should standout. We are a starting a new age, after all.

The first time I rawr heard this song, all I could think about was how creepy it sounded. Then I started listening to the lyrics, and they were all focused around the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse. One horseman has a bow, one a sword, one a balance and the last was

talks to you and magically creates pizza slices at your request but beware when it turns on you and gives you steamed brussel sprouts instead.

Libra 9/23 - 10/22

mix-tape The air is full of dust and debris, people are running around screaming and some guy is on a horse. All of this means the coming of the end, which is why I have compiled a track list for you while you witness the chaos.

4.11.14

“Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

“Riot” by Three Days Grace Revolution has always been a kind of apocalypse

Pisces 2/19 - 3/20 If your house plants start stealing things like the remote, your grandma’s urn or your pet chinchilla, it’s time to consider incinerating them before they take your precious Harry Potter collector’s wand and gain magical powers.

‘Here comes the end’ but Three Days Grace’s song “Riot” is all about how the downtrodden should stand up for themselves. They need to rise up against their oppressors, and start a riot that could bring the world crumbling down.

“Skyfall” by Adele This song was featured on the 2012 James Bond movie, “Skyfall.” Adele sings about people meeting and the world being created through collisions and dark days, while people will stand together at the end of it all.

“Who’s Got My Back?” by Creed The song starts off with a sort of Native American sounding chant and a weird eerie background noise that sounds like a strange mix of robotic movements and running water. When lead singer Scott Alan Stapp starts singing, the music is still a quiet deceptive line. Stapp sings about people turning on each other which causes the end of the world. Claire Whitley can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

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RAWR REVIEWS

The ‘Supernatural’ apocalypse *Spoiler alert

While Dean has been sneakily seeing Crowley Demon troops led by Abbehind Sam’s back, badon and a powerful Sam recently found Knight of Hell might out that Abbadon be coming soon to kill is collecting human all human beings and souls to build demon to take over the earth. armies. In “Mother’s After nine seasons Little Helper,” Sam and of a life-and-death Dean agreed to focus journey, Sam and Dean nurainy on searching for AbWinchester have been darono badon and killing her through on popular rawr immediately. The next paranormal TV show episode “Meta Fiction” “Supernatural,” this might be will air on April 15. the end — the apocalypse is Different from previon its way. ous seasons, “Supernatural” Over a couple of months Season 9 is taking a new searching for the First Blade, route by introducing a very also known as the weapon to strong enemy, fresh from kill Abbadon, Sam and Dean Hell — Abbadon. She might be with the help of The King of the strongest of the enemies Hell Crowley, finally found the Winchesters will have one of the Men of Letters ever encountered. Abbadon named Cuthbert Sinclair, who is something Sam and Dean had the blade. should be worried about. Crowley has been a deIn seasons one through tainee of Sam and Dean for a eight, Sam and Dean have few months. Behind his pity survived and saved the earth and fake human behaviors, from the apocalypse — they Crowley has played along to be friends with Sam and Dean have fought thousands of demons, got rid of Lucifer, with his main goal of snatchkilled the Leviathans and ing the First Blade to use it defeated other monsters. Abfor his own. Crowley’s plan is badon sounds like a scary and to kill Abbadon and take over dangerous one to kill. Hell again. All these years, the strength While this is happening, of a family Sam and Dean Abbadon announces herself have, has kept them going to to be the new Queen of Hell. continue the family business. She has been building demon Will they be successful to fight armies and has kept track on both Abbadon and Crowley what the Winchesters and at the same time without the Crowley are doing on Earth. help of their guardian Angel Although, without the Castiel and Prophet of the Mark of Cain that Dean Lord Kevin Tran? Winchester has on his right As my favorite TV show, I arm after the one of the first hope Sam and Dean can fight demons Cain willingly transAbbadon and Crowley. But if ferred to him, the First Blade this is it, this might be the is of no use. end — the apocalypse of “SuWhile Sam is fully healed pernatural” that the fans have from the angel poison, Dean been eager to see. is in a dilemma of having so Nurainy Darono much power after he touched can be reached at the First Blade for the first arg-arts@uidaho.edu time to killed Sinclair.

Green been stir fry nurainy darono crumbs Green bean stir fry is easy to make and is a healthier alternative of Asian foods. You need two frying pans to cook — you will cook green beans in one pan, and ground beef in another pan at the same time. This is actually easier to make than it sounds. So, if you want to show off your cooking skills to your friends, this might be the right recipe.

more information

hannah shirley | rawr

For more recipes, visit us online at one (or all) of the following: Website: www.uiargonaut.com/ crumbs Facebook: www.facebook.com/ uicrumbs

A Crumbs Recipe Card Green bean stir fry Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 pound frozen green beans Chopped ginger Salt and pepper Garlic salt Minced garlic

Directions: Thaw frozen green beans for a couple hours or soak in hot water. In a pan, heat up about 3 teaspoons oil, add a desire amount of minced garlic and ginger. Stir fry green beans in the same pan for

about 10-15 minutes in medium high heat until tender. In another pan, cook ground beef without oil. Ground beef has enough fat to cook itself, so oil isn’t needed. After ground beef is completely cooked, drain the extra fat. Mix ground beef with green beans and cook in medium low heat. Season with salt, pepper and soy sauce. Taste it while stirring and add desire amount garlic salt. Serve hot with rice and sprinkle minced garlic on top. Nurainy Darono can be reached at crumbs@uidaho.edu

the argonaut

Robophone emily vaartstra rawr

An earthquake leaves a big city in ruins — there are only so many people search and rescue personnel can reach at one time and they can’t possibly know where to find all the survivors. One smartphone attached to an RC Car leads an army of 5,000 robots into the destruction as they try to find survivors. Once found, the survivors then have a phone to call for help and they can be located through the GPS coordinates the robot provides. This is just one scenario that Robert Heckendorn, a faculty member for the University of Idaho Computer Science Department (CSD), envisions for the future of CommercialOff-The-Shelf (COTS bots). COTS bots utilize two readily available commercial products — RC Cars and smartphones — and combine them to make a self-functioning robot that learns and moves through visual recognition and demonstration. Heckendorn said the convenience of using smartphones is because the phones are in such a highly competitive market, the programs being built are becoming faster and more advanced, and the libraries are already written for them to use and teach the robots. “We’re now learning how to program cell phones, but at the same time learning to program robots because they are one and the same,” Heckendorn said. “If Google comes up with something that gives a phone the ability to sense 3D environment around them, which they are working on, then our robot will get that. If Apple decides to put something in the cloud for phones, we get it. For instance, our robots can get speech recognition practically for free, so now we can order the robot to go right and we just use

the (programmed grammatical library) to supply us with our speech stuff for free.” Not only are COTS bots financially cheaper and save programming time, they are a technologically more effective alternative for robot research compared to using actual research designed robots — which are often underpowered, have slow computer chips, contain minimal features and are overly expensive, according to Heckendorn. Terence Soule, the other CSD faculty member partnered on this project, said the COTS bots primarily learn through demonstration. Currently Heckendorn, Soule and graduate students Travis DeVault, Nathaniel Ebel, Jayandra Pokharel in the program conduct training exercises in the UI Arboretum to teach the robots how to follow a path and each other to a specific location. Heckendorn said the COTS bots use the camera on the phone to “see” — taking four to 10 frames per second and basing decisions on those pictures. The first part of the COTS bots’ learning process is through remote control demonstration. “As (the grad students) are driving the robot, the phone is watching what’s happening,” Soule said. “So it says, ‘When I see this sort of an image I’m being told I should go forward, when I see this sort of an image I’m being told to go left, when I see this sort of an image I’m being told to turn right.’” Once the COTS bot has enough of those examples, it begins to learn that when it sees a brown path off to the right side of its view, that means to turn right and if it sees green grass it should steer away from it, Soule said. Another form of training Soule and Heckendorn are using on the COTS bots is clicker training — the same kind of training used on dogs to let

them know if they are doing something right. With dogs, you give them treats and press the clicker so the dog associates the clicker with positive reinforcement. “It’s a little bit like (the game) hotter/colder,” Soule said. “I’m going to give a lot of clicks, because you are getting warmer. We’ve done the same sort of thing with the robot. We’ll use a separate remote that has sort of a good robot button and a bad robot button. And initially the robot does random things but if it’s moving in the right direction we can give it that positive reinforcement and then it says, ‘Okay I’m going to reinforce this behavior.’” One example Soule gave is if they train the robot to go toward a green ball, after 10 minutes of clicker training, the robot will turn until it sees something green and go towards it. When it gets close enough so the ball fills the whole screen, it will turn again until it sees something red and head towards that — receiving the good robot clicks when it is behaving in the desired manner. The future possibilities with COTS bots is exciting, Heckendorn said, and it is something that every individual could potentially benefit from — since cellphones and smartphones are in almost every household in the U.S. “Suppose (your cellphone) could live on its own,” Heckendorn said. “Suppose it can watch the house while you were gone. Suppose it could take care of your pets. Suppose it go outside and weed the lawn.” One goal both Heckendorn and Soule have is using the COTS bots to locate the more than 100 million landmines scattered across the world. “I think that would be a huge benefit for mankind, because people are still dying

4.11.14

The UI Computer Science Department’s COTS bots allow smartphones to move on their own

parker wilson | rawr

This COTS bots program is using the phones camera to guide the cotsbot toward the green ball without getting too close to it. from landmines that were placed there decades earlier,” Heckendorn said. “(The robots) can do one of two things — if they have the right censors they can either report GPS coordinates (of the landmine) or they could even just blow it up because it’s a $200 robot,” Soule said. “It’s way worth $200 to get rid of a mine.” As Heckendorn, Soule and their team of grad students continue to do research with the COTS bots, they aim work on GPS mapping as well as have the robots communicate with each other. Soule said a

goal for this summer is to have the robots come to a fork in path and have one COTS bot tell another to go to the right while it takes the left path. “Someone started building watches and then (wherever we went) we knew what time it was,” Heckendorn said. “Then people started building things that told us where we were located by using GPS. Now we’ve been carrying our tools around with us and I think perhaps it’s time that our tools move by themselves.” Emily Vaartstra can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

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y fridaids o fact

Religious apocalypse edition

According to the Book of Revelation in the Bible, the end times includes “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” until the Second Coming of Christ in which the Rapture occurs, taking to heaven all those who believed and followed Christ’s teachings.

illustration by danlin li | rawr

In Buddhism, the Tipitaka says the end times will arrive when people lose all morality, resorting to the 10 Amoral Concepts before Maitreya (future Buddha) comes to Earth to teach the pure Dharma.

Doomsday dramas bradley burgess rawr Until that fateful day when mankind meets certain doom, the only research we have to prepare with is end-of-theworld movies. Let’s breakdown the various potential ends we as a species could face.

Biblical end times There’s not much in the way of biblical apocalypses in film. The comedy “This Is The End” chronicles the Rapture from the point of view of comedy stars, but anyone who’s seen the film knows it is not to be taken seriously. The same could be said for the Kevin Smith epic “Dogma,” which overanalyzes the concept of the Almighty, but

if the world does end thanks to two renegade angels who go on a murderous rampage, we wouldn’t see it coming.

Alien apocalypse For alien conspiracy nuts, one of the more popular theories is that aliens will come and kill us all. If that’s the case, then they have several different methods of destruction to choose from. They could systematically blow up the major cities of the world, a la “Independence Day,” or just annihilate the planet without lifting a finger as in “Titan A.E.” They could replace us with robot clones via “The World’s End,” or have an elaborate scheme to use human clones against us as in “Oblivion.” For all we know,

the Decepticons (“Transformers”) could already be invading us disguised as police cars.

Robot apocalypse Then there’s the possibility of robots enslaving us all. In “The Matrix,” robots drain the energy from human beings, while keeping them in control with a computer simulation of their normal lives. If that’s the case, we’ll never know if we’re in the apocalypse until we take the red pill. But one of the more popular robopocalypse theories is the “Terminator” theory. When judgment day finally arrives, SkyNet will launch nuclear attacks against the world and send Terminator robots to eradicate what’s left. This theory is so popular that

officials from nuclear testing labs declared the nuclear blast from “Terminator 2” the most accurate depiction of a nuclear blast ever created for a fictional motion picture.

Zombie apocalypse Between the recent blockbuster “World War Z” and the hit TV show “The Walking Dead,” this one seems to be making a comeback. Though you have to ask, what kind of virus creates zombies? Films like “Shaun of the Dead” tend to tap dance around the exact cause of the outbreak, whereas films like “28 Days Later” seem to track backwards to the moment where we were all doomed eternally thanks to a group of idiots. In any

The apocalypse in film case, we’d have to rack up weapons for that fateful day and something tells me that crossbows will sell out quick. Zombie survivalists will have to get creative. Maybe shoot them in hordes from long distances with a sniper rifle? Launch explosives at them with an old fashioned catapult? Or we could go the University of Idaho route and chuck old socks at them. Whatever way the world will end, we’ll have a lot of time on our hands. Maybe we could stay indoors and reminisce about these films and the eerie predictions that they made. All while the fiasco of “2012” remains forgotten. Bradley Burgess can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

the argonaut

4.11.14 Katy Kithcart | rawr

People use fossil fuels daily as they drive vehicles. The fuels, along with many other sources, produce carbon dioxide which is affecting climate change. As people use release more and more carbon dioxide into the air, sea levels rise and global warming intensifies.

Warming winter chin-lun hsu rawr After watching movies like “The Day after Tomorrow,” people were stunned with the possible scenes of doomsday and the power that nature could have over humanity. While the movie depicts the world going into an ice age within days, scientists, geographic experts and professors do not see credibility in that kind of disaster.

Sci-fi vs. real world “Climate change is really interesting, because it’s not usually a story that’s going to make frontline news,” said John Abatzoglou, assistant professor at the University of Idaho Department of Geography. “It’s more of a slow moving hazard.” Abatzoglou said in “The Day after Tomorrow,” the movie created the idea of apocalyptic situations that are not what scientists expect climate change to be. He said climate change would cause changes over decades rather than weekends. “(The climate has) warmed around one to two degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years in general for all seasons,” Abatzoglou said. “We don’t necessarily expect that climate change is going to mean that each year is progressively warmer, we expect it to be a cold year or cold decades along the road.”

“The Day after Tomorrow” depicts the Earth going into an ice age, which was thousands of years ago,” Abatzoglou said. “Scientists called it snowball Earth, where the whole world becomes entirely frozen and the planet is covered by glacial ice from pole to pole. That’s a pretty scary situation. There’s no evidence that suggests that something dramatic would occur anytime in the near future.” Global cooling in “The Day after Tomorrow” and global warming in the real world should not be on the same page, he said. As things warm up, they are inhibited the ability to form ice — but it doesn’t mean there won’t be a big storm or freezing weather. “We still expect big snow storms and occasionally cold winters like much of (what) Eastern United States had this past winter,” Abatzoglou said. “So that doesn’t necessarily say that climate change is not happening. It’s a natural part of the system.”

Consequences from climate change Even though the climate change will not cause immediate disaster, there are still significant consequences that can happen over the years. If people continue destroying the environment, the Earth will possibly become a place that is harmful for living

things, according to Abatzoglou. “Along with the changes in temperature, we’ve seen increases in the temperature in ocean, increases in the sea level, declines in arctic sea ice ascent, declines in mountain snowpack,” Abatzoglou said. “We’ve also seen changes in geographic distribution of species with generally species moving towards to the poles trying to sort of stay at the same temperature region.” He said other changes such as precipitation are less clear whether the changes are resulted from climate change because they have changed overtime and are considered natural. “But the changes that we’ve seen in terms of temperature don’t appear to be something that we would expect through natural processes,” Abatzoglou said.

Factors of climate change The main factor that causes warming of the planet is the increase in atmosphere concentration of greenhouse gases, which carbon dioxide and methane are the main ones, Abatzoglou said. The increase is due to the utilization of carbon containing fuels (fossil fuels) and deforestation. People take those fuels, burn it to create energy and some of it makes its way back in the atmosphere, he said. Even though scientists have

People are scared “The Day after Tomorrow” will happen, scientists are not so positive

found out what causes climate change is greenhouse gases, they cannot stop the world from releasing them since that energy plays an important role in human life. “The tricky part is there’s a lot of things going on,” said Jeffery Hicke, associate professor at UI Department of Geography. “I would say carbon machines are heavily tied energy, and energy is important part of the economy. (It’s) not a simple decision. It involved a lot of people and perhaps some pretty significant changes in lifestyle, certainly some new businesses have to arrive, (and) other businesses diminish.” Since changing the current situation or finding the alternative energy resources will take a significant amount of time, the changes from climate will keep affecting the environment, he said. “Hundreds of scientist(s) have found or estimated that the climate is expected to continue to warm in a next decade or hundred years,” Hicke said. “We’re definitely going to warm here in Northern Idaho.”

Future after climate change While technology makes life easier and better for humans, the climate change could bring more and more disasters to the Earth and its people. “There’s a lot of disasters we

think may happen,” Hicke said. “It certainly becomes drier and more arid in some condition. At the same time, we may experience more flooding because of the increases in heavy rainfall.” He said there’s a relationship between the climate and hurricanes, and a relationship between warming and wildfires. Another influential but overlooked fact is ocean acidification — as atmospheric carbon dioxide goes up, some dissolves into the ocean and makes it more acidic, which affects shellfish production and oyster farms in Western Washington, according to Hicke. Hicke said scientists are trying to keep the global temperature low and they have the capacity to do that. However, he thinks that this is a matter of political will that the public and government have to decide this is an important issue with serious consequences. “We can look at the differences between a pathway where we start to utilize less carbon intensive fuel versus, sort of, business as usual and from that perspective, we can see that if we do change the way we use energy, the magnitude of changes in climate will be reduced substantially,” Abatzoglou said. Chin-Lun Hsu can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

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Human vs. Human 7

Robots, zombies and fallout, oh my ... man’s greatest enemy may be himself hannah shirley rawr

In remote New Mexico, deep within a winding labyrinth of golden canyons, Chaco Canyon sits empty. Until the sixth century, though, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico was the cultural epicenter of a thriving Anasazi civilization, according to the Chaco Canyon National Park System. The Anasazi culture sprawled across the American Southwest as far north as Utah and Colorado. At their peak, the Anasazi, which comes from an ancient Navajo word meaning “ancient enemy,” dominated the Southwest as a religious and economic powerhouse with their complex road systems and irrigation systems. Their famous cliff palaces were built with defensive systems and engineering far beyond their time. The Anasazi civilization thrived for over 1,400 years and at its peak there is thought to have been roughly 1,200 Anasazi living in a single Chaco Canyon pueblo alone. Until one day, the Anasazi people simply vanished. According to the National Park System (NPS), all their belongings were left in their dwellings and their religious structures were systematically burned. All evidence suggests that the Anasazi left quickly in anticipation of a long journey with no intention of returning. What experts can’t agree on, though, is why. The Anasazi upheaval came with the Great Drought, so some hypothesize the Anasazi left when they could no longer cultivate enough crops to contend with their growing numbers. Others argue this doesn’t explain the haste with which they abandoned their home, though it certainly could have put a strain on their daily lives, allowing for other factors to come into play — according to NPS. A 1994 discovery, however, seemed to end all debate that purely environmental factors were to blame. An archaeological dig at an ancient Anasazi site in Colorado found 24 skeletons that showed signs of violence and dismemberment. Further examination of the remains suggested they had been the victims of cannibalism.

This, of course, opened up a whole slew of theories, including religious upheaval, ethnic cleansing and warfare — regardless of what happened to the Anasazi, it is clear that they have joined the Romans, the Mayans, the people of Easter Island and countless other civilizations that brought about their own apocalypse. A question just as interesting as how these civilizations fell, though: are we on the same path?

The end of days There is no shortage of startling social trends in the modern world — every day we’re bombarded with horror stories of overpopulation, poverty, crime and corporate greed. According to UI sociology professor Patrick Gillham, one of the biggest social issues of our time is the rise of income inequality. “Income inequality often leads to conflict between those who have concentrated wealth and those that don’t,” Gillham said. “In extreme cases, it can lead to violence and revolution.” Economic disparity hasn’t been so extreme in America since before the Great Depression, Gillham said — though this trend is startling. UI director of General Studies and professor of ethnography Rodney Frey said this is representative of a much bigger issue. “We have an inequality in how we relate to the species of this land and don’t care for endangered species,” Frey said. “The numbers of these species that are constantly being vanquished from our world because of how heavily we tread on the landscape. Seems to me to also be expressed in the inequality of how we treat each other as humans economically and politically. I see a correlation in that and how we treat the landscape. I’m not knocking capitalism, but there can be a compassionate capitalism and forms of social structures that help assure each other equitable opportunity to realize our full potential. These different applications of self-centeredness are the antithesis of empathy and compassion.”

see human, page 8

illustration by shane wellner | rawr

the argonaut

4.11.14

OUT Which kind of apocalypse is the

SPEAK

most probable to you? “A virus, because with our mass transit system and all the airplane travel, something like that could spread really fast, really easy. If it was airborne or touch, it would be totally feasible for a large portion of the globe to get infected.” Katarina Brownell

“Probably something environmental that we brought upon ourselves. I don’t really believe in zombies or Jesus or anything. I would probably die.” Nathan Austin

“A government takeover, which would entail a big-time government official — like a worldwide dictator. It’s kind of already happening in a way. If you think about it, America’s got a foothold in every country and they’re controlling every country in some form.” Tessa Bowey

“Zombies, because virus mutations are probable and so easily transferred from one living thing to another. Once that occurs, it can’t be stopped.” Andy Harrington

Steven Peluso | The Noun Project

human

from page 7

Frey kept returning to empathy, compassion and love. He said he believes that these qualities are the spirit of humanity and that this is reflected in the teachings of the world’s major religions. Frey, who has a background teaching world religions, said love is at the core of the Torah, Quran, Gospels, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. Though each religion bears fundamental similarities to each other, however, each has different definitions of sin, different concepts of the afterlife and different implications of the apocalypse. In his World Religions class, Frey said one point of emphasis was the Book of Revelations in the Bible. The Christian description of the End of Days found in

these pages teaches followers how to prepare for the Second Coming — and prepare they have. “There have been social movements anticipating the apocalypse all throughout history,” Frey said. “If people anticipate an apocalypse, especially when it is a central theme in one’s life, it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s so embedded that an end of days is eminent that everything we do right now is in preparation for it.” The problem with this mentality? As a self-declared eternal optimist, Frey thinks that it’s what he calls the 10th generation. “Will the actions of someone who feels sure the end is so close put that person in a position to think 10 generations out?” Frey said. “If you think the end is near and you’re preparing for your own end, why would you take a service learning break to go to New Orleans to help

someone in need? I don’t know how that necessarily enables one to embrace those great teachings of love and compassion and acting towards perpetuating a sustainable future. As a social scientist, I embrace evolution, but also as a spiritual person, I embrace the creation story. I believe in both and they both, for me, culminate to say the greatest aspiration of our humanity is to have empathy and compassion for each other and every living thing in this world and I just don’t know how that is reconciled ultimately with apocalyptic thinking.”

Is the end nigh? UI history professor Pingchao Zhu has watched her country decline for decades. As China becomes increasingly modernized, it too becomes increasingly powerful both politically and economically. It is

rapidly on its way to becoming a global superpower, but according to Zhu, who was raised and spent much of her adult life in China, the country’s identity is beginning to slip through its fingers. Zhu moved to America about 20 years ago and still considers herself to be Chinese. But every time she returns to China, she sees a little less of her home country — Chinese youth are using iPhones, wearing name brand clothes made in Europe or the U.S. and speaking English. “When I talk to them about real Chinese things, they want to abandon them,” Zhu said. “You don’t have to abandon the Chinese culture in order to become modernized — carrying a Louis Vuitton bag does not make you a modern woman.” This, Zhu said, is what we have to fear — not a zombie uprising or nuclear fallout, but a slower, quieter cultural apocalypse.

Frey agreed that adjustments will be forced upon us by natural and social pressures, but hopefully humanity can take the initiative to solve those issues — before we have to adapt to those external things. “I’m 64, my chance of making a difference is pretty minimal,” Frey said. “That’s why I’m so hopeful in where I see my firstyear students that I have right now — I just see a hope and optimism and curiosity and a willingness to take on those challenges. I see students embracing service learning. Service learning is not about giving up. It is about hope. It is about making a difference for the world you live in and as students embracing the callings what I perceive as what the apocalyptic mentality would seek to undermine.” Hannah Shirley can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

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Humans vs. Zombies photos by george wood | rawr

the argonaut

Friday Fiction

White like April hannah shirley rawr

I remember everything. I remember what he said when he was senator, I remember what he forgot when he was king. Oh say can you see’s and one nation under God’s and promises that rolled like tides, like beautiful, shining seas. I remember the sea — cold, green and wide. I could taste the salt on your lips. What’re you afraid of? The night is green. I remember checking one row all the way down the ballot. He’s just like us, you’d said. Just like us, sure, with his estate in the Hamptons and his ‘53 Bentley. Just like us, with his Medal of Honor and a way with words to make bards weep. The Working Class Martyr — His Majesty, Prince of the Unprotected.

“Try not to blame him,” you wrote later from a combat zone far, far away. “He’s doing the best he can.” I remember how we met in April. April, colored with paper cities, reveries, clouds. April, covered with fire and brimstone and sunlight, and the song of the heralds as they raced across the sky, scattering a new age from both their hands. I had your grande mocha frappuccino affogato with whip — clutched it. I’d always said you were crazy, ordering your frappes in winter. I remember the moment the bombs came, and you exploded into a thousand shards of light, and all I could think was grande mocha frappuccino affogato with whip. You loved

your coffee. I suppose you remember they sent back a flag instead of sending back you. I set it on fire to set you free — I was alone when it happened. I remember all the ghosts of dead soldiers, tripping over my home to see their honor burn. The hell was that for? they asked. The tide came in and they didn’t speak again. I remember everything — loam that turned black beneath ash that turned white like lies, white like elephants, white like April. I remember everything, and you never said goodbye. Hannah Shirley can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

I remember what he said when he was senator, I remember what he said when he was king.”

Begging the supernatural bryce delay rawr Colonialism is not something most people would relate to the apocalypse, but for the inhabitants of various Pacific islands during World War II the invasion the Japanese and American militaries transformed their way of living — bringing a whole new definition to a cultural apocalypse. Laura Putsche, a sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Idaho, focuses her work on indigenous people of South America and the consequences of colonialism. For the most part, she said indigenous societies throughout the world have suffered the most from invading cultures like those from Europe and the United States. One particular backlash to colonialism, Putsche said, is that people start to turn to the supernatural to fight off invaders or to help explain the situation. Putsche explained that people who are extremely dissatisfied with their lives tend to develop revitalization movements to combat the change

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Pacific Islanders battle cultural invasions by begging for divine intervention

She said indigenous people at first or people who have affected them negatively. People who are experiencing had little idea where their ships were coming from. For many island societextreme social, political or economic ies, the Japanese and American soldiers stress tend to buy into the profits or took over Pacific Islands. leaders of these movements. They occupied part of their There are numerous land, brought diseases, and examples of revitalization changed their way of life. movements which took place Revitalization movements across the world. One of the were an effort to usher in a best examples of these movebetter way of life, Putsche ments, Putsche said, took said. Some believed that the place in the Pacific Iislands past would come back, but during World War II. During usually people wished for the conflict between the Japaa better and different kind nese and the United States, of life. many islands were invaded by “When they believe it’s soldiers on both sides of the out of their control they war. She said in many cases tend to turn towards the there were indigenous people laura putsche supernatural,” Putsche said. living on these islands who Many times they start had no previous contact with with a prophet, she said. the outside world. The prophet usually stakes claims on “Could you imagine being the inhabhow to reject the change that has disitants of those islands seeing invaders rupted their way of life. or ships for the first time?” Putsche One phenomenon Putsche desaid. “They’d probably come off as Marscribed, which happened in the wake tians, you wouldn’t know what to do.”

Could you imagine being the inhabitants of those islands seeing invaders or ships for the first time?

of colonialism, was called cargo cults. The islanders were perplexed at the ebb and flow of cargo coming in for their foreign invaders. In some cases, Putsche said they would imitate the Japanese or American soldiers, because they believed that the invaders had some kind of supernatural secret that allowed them to access the cargo. But these cults were all different, she said. Sometimes the prophets would reject the invaders. In some instances, prophets predicted the coming of a storm that would wipe out the invaders and a better life would ensue. Another hope was that a cataclysmic event would destroy their invaders and fix the current state of their existence, according to Putsche. “What they all have in common is that there is some pretty serious dissatisfaction with the current way of life and lack of understanding of what the nature of the problem is,” Putsche said. Bryce Delay can be reached at arg-arts@uidaho.edu

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11 Hood

austin brown | rawr

Events Calendar Friday, April 11 5:30 p.m. – 2014 Academy and College Awards Ceremony in the SUB Vandal Ballroom 6:30 p.m. – Jazz Bands and Choirs at the Haddock Performance Hall 7 p.m. – “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” presented by the Idaho Meth Project at the Kenworthy 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. – “Inside Llewellyn Davis” presented by Vandal Entertainment in the SUB Borah Theater 8 p.m. – White Tie Improv at the Kiva Theater in the UI Education Building 8:30 p.m. – Grocery Bingo at the Student Recreation Center

Saturday, April 12 1 p.m. – Alicia Moyer on the flute and Jordan Asker on the double bass at the Haddock Performance Hall 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. – “Inside Llewellyn Davis” presented by Vandal Entertainment in the SUB Borah Theater. 4 p.m. – Logan Daily composition at the Haddock Performance Hall 7 p.m. – Rendezvous Showcase presented by Rendezvous in the Park at the Kenworthy

Sunday, April 13 illustration by jesse keener | rawr

3 p.m. – University of Idaho Choirs at the Haddock Performance

Hall 7:30 p.m. – Alisa Jones on the piano at the Haddock Performance Hall

Monday, April 14 4:30 p.m. – Hippies, Hoedads, and the Environmental Movement in TLC Room #40

Tuesday, April 15 7:30 p.m. – Student Chamber Music Series at the Haddock Performance Hall

Wednesday, April 16 12:30 p.m. – Daytime Distractions in the Idaho Commons Food Court 7 p.m. – “Growing Cities” presented by the Moscow Food Co-op Food for Thought series at the Kenworthy 9 p.m. - Women’s climbing night at the Student Recreation Center

Thursday, April 17 12:30 p.m. - Lavender Lunch in TLC 229 5:30 p.m. – Got Sex? Sexual Health Education Series at the UI Women’s Center 7:30 p.m. – Luciano Marazzo on the guitar at the Haddock Performance Hall 7:30 p.m. – Chris Howell reading at BookPeople of Moscow 8 p.m. – “The Wind Rises” at the Kenworthy 8 p.m. – Vandal Entertainment Magic: Ben Seidman at the SUB

Dhe “Apocalypse” (aka doomsday, aka Armageddon, aka Revelation) R WOof t EK A great disaster — a sudden and very bad event that causes much fear, loss or destruction.

Example: When Mark found out he would have three finals in one day, he thought it was a sign of the apocalypse.

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Summer is in the air Grab a snack or refreshment from the Commons and SUB for hanging out in the sun! Idaho Commons: 885 . 2667 info@uidaho.edu

Student Union: 885 . 4636 www.sub.uidaho.edu