Diffusion

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PageDihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

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Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

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Page Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

We wrote this magazine, so if you see it here, we find it interesting. Different people have different tastes; therefore this magazine contains flowers, lethal diseases and everything in be-tween. However, there is a curious lack of exclamations marks, as we the editors believe them to be overused and have squirreled them away except in the most dire of circumstances. This magazine is here to inform and entertain with our own special blend of sarcastic slapstick. Some articles are more slapstick. Others are more sarcastic. Pick your poison. --X Willis

If you’re reading this, it’s too late. But thanks for reading our magazine anyway. Especially this part. Most people don’t read letters from the editors. They’re usually pretty boring, or have no purpose whatsoever. Like this one. In fact, I probably wouldn’t recommend reading this. Anyway, this magazine is about science. If you don’t like science, too bad. We have articles about a multitude of subjects ranging from teachers to death and more! Hoping you enjoy reading the rest of the magazine.--Ben B.

Dear Readers,I hope that while you read this magazine and the many articles in it, you will appreciatethe different characters that wrote the many pieces. Over the course of writing thesearticles, we fought 826 times and have made-up just as many. We’ve laughed severaltimes, screamed, had internet failures, and endured hours of frustration. We now presentthis magazine, not as a perfect manifestation of our dreams, nor as a perfect masterpiece, but rather as a memory of our year together. With the best wishes in your readings.--Daniel Zimmerman

[email protected];

Letters From the Editors

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BiosDaniel Zimmerman (aka. Mister Pip) loves to spend his free time enjoying many of the hidden splendors of life: reading, talking, and playing cards. Along with playing tennis, he enjoys playing bowling and losing miserably. The biggest joy of Zimmerman’s life is work-

ing on exploring the world of languages. Attempting to learn Spanish, English, German, Icelandic, Czech, and Polish, he is now working on

creating his own language, Novin, which is based off romance languages.

Ben B. often spells his name right. It’s not that hard to spell. He aspires to be a humble writer with a large ego. Biology is one of his seven most favoritest subjects at school. He really enjoys long walks by the beach. And he means really long walks by the beach. Seriously. The last time he went on one, he passed out and woke up in a hospital. Dressed as a doctor. Which was everything he ever wanted. Except the writing thing of course. He loves it when people look over his shoulder while he’s writing about himself, espe-cially when they butt in and correct his grammer. And add things. He compares his life to a tax evation... illegal and boring.

X. Willis often spells her name wrong. She swore in eighth grade that she’d never wear matching socks again - unless it’s a life-or-death matter. On that note, she feels sorry for her shoes - only one pair has evey lasted more than a year. Obviously, shoes need to be made with stronger glue. Another thing that needs to change is makeup. She feels that it’s useless and time-consuming. Unfortunately for her, that’s not how her mother feels. She believes that if you can

only be one thing, be different, because you’re unique. Just like everyone else. Oh, and sarcasm is one of her more prominent features.

Ximone Willis is usually seen running frantically towards her bus while dropping her books (She really would appriciate some help.).

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Opinion

Ben Bailey

A few hundred years ago, America was a frontier for the Europeans. The plains were vast and rolling, the food plentiful, and horizons limitless. Fast-forward to today. We now have a new “frontier” to explore. It’s not space, however, as Star Trek would have you be-lieve. The human race is working on beginning a new life in the ocean. Living underwater is possible, plau-sible and pleasurable. While it is true that this new venture may be costly and take a lot of faith from the people, it is certainly worth taking that chance. Un-

derwater colonies could be the thing that saves us from environmental problems. If we can change ourselves (both physically and mentally), we can change the world.

The world is in a state of global warming, and living underwater would help solve environmental problems by decreasing the polluting population on the Earth’s surface. According to the Climate Insti-tute (climate.org), sea levels will rise be-tween .6 and two feet in the next century. If a rise of two feet occurs, cities such as Amsterdam and Ho Chi Minh will be par-tially submerged. Maybe instead of com-bating this, we should learn to live with it. In the process of building underwater res-idences, we are already developing new technologies such as mobile hydropower systems. These technologies would also be useful in normal life. They would help lead humans towards a cleaner, more ef-ficient way of living in general because of the streamlining involved in the creation of such technologies. Take, for instance, the Coral World Park that is being built in Asia. This is an underwater resort that has all the necessities for life, including oxygen, security, and solid structure. The engineers have developed a complex model for society. To take care of security issues, they say that the “whole resort will be tightly guarded.” This underwater re-sort will be a great way to improve society and the environment.

Why underwater life is not just a fantasy.

Underwater Tunnel

A

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Headline art courtesy Duke University

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One culture in Southeast Asia has adapted to a partly-underwater lifestyle already. They are freedivers, and dive for food and recreation. This gives them a much different view on life. These people (the Bajau) “can change to be bet-ter adapted to the water,” says an article from BBC. The science behind this principle is ac-tually fairly simple. If you expose the body to intense or extreme conditions, it changes to fit the environment. The same article states that “during breath-holding, oxygen stores reduce and the body starts diverting blood from hands and feet to the vital organs.” This shows that humans, contrary to popular belief, are actually pretty good at adapting, and living underwater may be the next step in the evolutionary pro-cess, as the Bajau realize. If the Bajau can do it, we surely can.

Another way humans could end up living un-derwater involves drastic evolution. While this is more unlikely, it is still possible. According to an article by Greg Downey on PosBlogs, humans

may evolve to have a longer breaking point (the point when we feel forced to breath). Delving into science fic-tion, other changes might include underwater vision, larger lungs to hold our breath for a longer time, and maybe even gills or webbed hands to make it easier to swim. Alas, most people alive today would not live to see the evolution of an underwater human. This could take thousands of years. These changes are certainly not likely

(especially not any time soon), but would lead to an eas-ier life for humans under the sea, and would quite hon-estly be really cool.

Life underwater is the future of society. Humans can adapt, evolve and create; we’re versatile creatures. The next logical step in human history would be to move underwater (whether it be into house bubbles or large community residences) - to explore the ocean, the final frontier.

Photo courtesy of flickr.com

Headline art courtesy Duke University

Some people think we should settle on Mars instead. This would be even more challenging than living underwater: Here’s three reasons why to choose water over Mars:

1. We don’t want to cause damage to another planet.2. Water is abundant on our planet.3. It makes up 70% of our bodies. We were made to live with water.

“They’ve changed to

fit their environment,

and so can [we].”

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Opinion

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A frail old man, struggling to push his cart out of the store. A young child, standing on tiptoe to reach for a book. A home-less person, crouching on the street.

These people all need help in some form. Though it may not seem like much to us, we help them be-cause it’s the right thing to do. But is it really? In The Case Against Helping the Poor, Garett Hardin maintains that helping people eventually leads to large-scale suffering. However, in any situation, Hardin’s logic is intrinsically flawed. Therefore, in approximately 547 days (December 21, 2012), we’ll have to help everyone we can or risk losing our humanity.

Of course, we say we’ll help people, but how will we choose who? We won’t have enough food to feed the world when the apocalypse happens so there has to be some selection process. Our best plan is to choose those with the most to lose. Older chil-dren and adults with families are the only real op-tions. They’ve got intense motivation to live - no child wants to die, nor does any parent want their child to die. Then we have the topic of teenagers. For all their angst, the majority of teenagers don’t really want to die and will do whatever it takes to keep living. They will never give up on life, which is a major point when you’re considering who to help - that way, these people will not waste your investment. People who would waste your invest-ment consist largely of the elderly, the very young, the obese and the apathetic. The elderly, in many cases, are ready to die - and if they are not, they can prove it with their usefulness in watching chil-

dren, cooking or cleaning, simple work that has to be done by someone. The very young cannot do anything, but chances are someone will under-take the task of caring for them - someone other than you. The apathetic are a lost cause because they just don’t care. If they did care, then they wouldn’t be apathetic.

In his ar-ticle, The Case Against Helping the Poor, Har-din maintains that aiding people by giving them food will inevitably lead to mass death. “If some [people] budget for accidents [such as crop fail-ure] and others do not...the poorly managed ones [without budgeting] will suffer. But they can learn from experience...[unless aid] is open to every [person] every time a need develops, [they] will not be motivated to take Joseph’s advice [to store excess from times of plenty to use in times of little]. Someone will always come to their aid...As a result...[they] will not learn to mend their ways, and will suffer progressively greater emergen-cies as their populations grow.” In other words, no one will learn to save food because they will not have to; by ‘babying’ people in need, we will prevent them from ‘growing up’ and learning how to budget food. Hardin’s fatal flaw is that he as-sumes we have the resources to provide nothing but supplies. In the apocalypse, we will not have the luxury of merely handing out supplies; the

By X Willis

By caveofknowledge.com; Tiffany McArhur; and free-desktop-backgrounds.net

Unknown

“Choose those with the most to

lose”

Continued on page 16


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Complete with handy numbers and descriptions, so you know what to find first!

All together, what does that spell?

Awesome Walruses Feel Safe

Food It’s edible. You live for about three weeks without it. As omnivores, we can eat both flora and fauna - animals and

plants. While easier to catch, plants are harder to identify - unless they come in cans. In that case, bring on the can openers!

Shelter It protects you from the elements. It may not sound like much, but when you’re dying of sunstroke or liter-

ally freezing to death in the winter rain, you’ll regret not building anything. There isn’t really a time limit on this one...it all depends on the weather.

Water It keeps you cooled down and hydrated. Without it, your cells shrivel and die. You’ve got approximately three days to find

some before you fall into a dehyrdation induced delirum, usually followed by death. Its chemical equation is H2O.

Air It’s breathable. You last approximately three minutes without it, which is why it’s the first thing you’ve got to find. It’s comprised of about

78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% aragon, less than 1% carbon dioxide and a whole spew of other gases that don’t really do much.


Opinion

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Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh my! As the American culture is changing, it is now easier

for Americans to pur-chase wild animals, ani-mals that pose a threat to the safety of the owners and others. Some of the wild animals arising in the pet market are mon-keys, exotic birds, and numerous types of rep-tiles. Wild animals are able to entertain, amuse, and allow for diversity in a household, but the fact of the matter is that these creatures should not be treated and housed like pets. Due to the safety threat and general compli-cations for both the animals and the owners, exotic animals should not be kept as pets.

One of the largest negative effects of the ownership of exotic animals is the pain that the animals endure under confined ownership. Many animals are used for cruel pur-poses, and treated without proper care. Now of course, not all exotic

pet owners abuse their pets in this way, but there is a potential large profit from exotic animals. This causes many owner to abuse their

pets by using them for private sale and keeping them in far inad-equate conditions. Wild animals suffer in conditions such as these

where they are sim-ply being kept for the e c o n o m i c advantage of the own-er. Exotic a n i m a l s are diffi-cult to buy and bring through in-ternational

borders. As a result these animals are smuggled in, where they are malnourished, underfed, and live in unfit conditions. Illegal smug-gling cases are becoming more common even with larger-sized animals, such an illegal tiger trafficking case report-ed by ABC News. Pet-Abuse, an animal society committed to releasing information pertaining to animal abuse cases, has re-ported cases where over 200

wild and exotic animals have been il-legally packed in a house and trapped in cag-es. The trauma and harm this causes the ani-mal is due to a demand for exotic animals in the Ameri-can culture. Our culture, thanks to me-

dias, such as the Internet, televi-sion, and radio, has let people ex-perience what possible joys there are of owning exotic pets, creating

a desire for these animals. If this cultural desire could be removed, numerous innocent animals could be removed from harm’s way.

As well as being a hassle to attend to and take care of, wild pets can cost owners thousands of dol-lars through the initial purchase and ongoing care. The original purchase of an exotic animal, de-pending on what sort of animal, can range in the thousands of dol-lars. According to the Exotic Pet Center, a typical pet store with listed pet purchase prices, mon-keys can range from $2,500 to

$ 4 , 0 0 0 , while other exotic birds are in the $1,000 to $ 2 , 0 0 0 range. The cost of caring for these ani-mals is ludicrous when compared to the price of dogs and cats, as there are numerous animals in need of adoption, that can be ob-tained from numerous societies such as local Animal Controls and Humane Societies. The cost of the animals only grows as veteri-

“Exoticanimals

should not be kept as

pets.”

Images from

flickr.com

Young Americans are having a growing interest in exoctic animals as pets.

Continued on page 16.

*From 2003-2006, 650 million an-imals were imported.

*$10 billion is spent a year in illegal animal smug-gling (Second to illegal drugs)

*Over 210 million animals were imported for research, ranches, and zoos in 2005.

*Exotic Animals carry numerous diseases such as salmonellosis, herbes B, and monkey pox.

*90% of exotic reptiles of-ten secrete salmonella in

their feces.

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12Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

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Ben Bailey

Walk Ona teacher and a friend

When most people are asked what their favorite teaching

moment was, they usually reply with some big teaching triumph. A child with a disability learning a concept they’ve been struggling with, or just the smiles on children’s faces. Amanda Walker, however, thinks differently.

“The moment I remember most of all in the classroom was [when] I had a kid who suddenly just vomited on another kid in class.”

Ms. Amanda Walker has been teach-ing at LASA for ___ years, and she’s

one of the students’ favorite instruc-tors. She teaches with a smile on her face, a mind full of knowledge, and a heart full of caring, with the goal to teach students how to teach them-selves.

Walker’s childhood started out and continued in a boarding school. In fact, the first time she walked into a public school was her first day of teaching. She feels her education and the educators there affected her in a positive way.

“[My teachers] made me want to do well and want to learn,” she said. I

think the responsibility for [mak-ing me want to teach] belongs to the teachers I had in high school who did so much and made me want to do the same thing.”

After going through school, Walker was sure she wanted to be a teacher. However, after a few years of being with high school students, she de-cided to go back to college for a while to get a more extensive and in-depth education.

It only took a few years back in col-lege for her to decide that she should stick with teaching high-school stu-

Ben Bailey

Walk Ona teacher and a friend

Photos courtesy Ben Bailey

13Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

Feature


dents. Something about going back to college just didn’t feel right to her.

“It’s kind of sad,” she said. “You can’t really get any rapport with people. By the time you get to know everyone’s names, it’s over. Something happens between high school and college where they stop wanting to learn, and just start feeling like ‘I payed my money, and you have to give me my grade, even if I don’t show up.’”

Teaching is something Walker en-joys. Instructors usually want stu-dents to feel loved and learn as much

as they can. Of course this is exactly what Walker feels for her pupils.

“The best part of being a teacher is getting to be with kids all day, [and] the teaching part is definitely a pas-sion,” Walker said.

Unfortunately, there’s a large por-tion of teaching where kids aren’t involved. That’s when the job can get repetitive and strenuous.

“All the parts where kids aren’t here, that’s a job. A boring and hard one, too,” she said.In fact, Walker feels that “the worst part of being a teacher is all the bu-reaucratic stuff.”

Sitting in a corner of Walker’s class-room, notice some disheveled pa-pers lying near microscopes, or hear a persistent bird call. The squawk-ing comes from Zazu, the class bird. “My life has been much happier since I got a parrot,” she said. As for the clutter, Walker thinks that her room says that she has “organization problems.”

Walker doesn’t really think there’s any moment that defines her as an instructor.

“I wouldn’t say there is one. Maybe

there will be at one time,” she said. However, there are specific mo-ments that make Walker feel good about teaching.

“I think that really anytime a student succeeds at something, that’s a de-fining moment,” she said. “Over and over again, it’s the same defining mo-ment, just with different people. And it makes you feel great every time.”

Of course, there is always one main thing teachers want to teach their students:

“If there is one thing I want students to learn from me,” Walker said, “it’s how to teach themselves [and] how to not need teachers anymore.”

“The best part of being a teach-er is getting to be with kids all day, [and] the teaching part is definitely a passion.”

Photo courtesy Flickr

Zazu, the parrot

Amanda Walker

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[ h ŏ p’- k ĭ n z ] - the untold story

[bī-ŏl’o-jē]- a branch of science concern-ing the natural world[tij’-teŋ]- passing information and knowledge from one

[jē’nōm’]-the set of, acid g

Daniel Zimmerman

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Brittany Hopkins’ classroom is lined with the artifacts of past teachers who worked

there. A desk spray-painted with the word “Beckham”, a projec-tor from the 80s, and numerous stained test-tubes carrying the scent of old science experiments gone wrong. But Hopkins room could not be farther from who she is. A first-year teacher bringing in new ideas, isn’t teaching in past-teacher’s method, but starting with new methods of teaching and ideas. Hopkins, a new biology teacher, is bring-ing in new ideas and a new view of what exactly biology is. Hopkins didn’t take a di-rect approach to becoming a biol-ogy teacher; in fact ending up in the biology field was an indirect approach to another goal. “I went into biology, be-cause I wanted to be a vet,” Hop-kins said, “Unfortunately there [weren’t] any zoology degrees that you can do as a graduate.” Her immersion in Biology was only half of what helped her to become a biology teacher. “I started volunteering at a middle school in Seattle, and that’s when I realized I wanted to be a teacher,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins has been in-formed that, due to budget cuts, her job is no longer secure and that she may lose it at the end of the year. She is unsure of what exactly she will do, but is keeping numerous possibilities open. “Hopefully, I can stay at LASA and teach,” Hopkins said, “If that doesn’t happen, then the next best scenario would be going somewhere else in the district, and teaching somewhere else.”

Hopkins encountered a big change when she came to work for LASA as a full time biology teacher af-ter working for O. Henry Middle School as a substitute.“I’ve been in two different roles,” Hopkins said, “At O. Henry, I was really just stepping in place of the

teacher”Though she en-joys teaching at LASA, she has fond memories of her time working as a substitute at O. Henry.“[At O. Henry], I had kids that would just get so

excited to see me and give me hugs every day in the hallway. I don’t get hugs from any of the students at LASA.” laughed Hopkins.She appreciates the fact that she has been able to work at both schools where she enjoyed her time teaching students. “I really enjoyed work-ing at O. Henry and I really enjoy working at LASA.” Hopkins said, “[I] have to count myself lucky that I got into two such wonderful places.”

Hopkins incorporates a new way of looking at biology in her class. “[I hope my students] see biology not as a science as some-thing where they have to memo-rize a bunch of stuff, but really more as a philosophy.” Hopkins said Her teaching ideal is al-lowing for students to see biology, as more than just dissected frogs and DNA, but rather as a life-long skill.“Biology being the study of life, there’s so many parallels between things you can discover in biol-ogy and things in the real world,” Hopkins said. “I hope [my stu-dents] allow themselves a chance to reflect on the things that we’re learning in Biology and under-stand how it’s applicable to them, their life, and their philosophical view of the world as a whole.”Hopkins enjoys that along with teaching, she is able to talk and visit with her students at LASA.“The best part of teaching is just being able to come and see so many people everyday and getting to know people and every single class,” Hopkins said. “It’s just re-ally fun to see so many familiar

[jē’nōm’]-the set of, g

“The best part of teaching is being able to

come and see so many people.”

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All photos taken by D

aniel Zimm

erman

Hopkins helping student in her classroom.

Continued on page 16.


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...people we help will have to work for their food. By doing so, they will learn to budget supplies whether they like it or not.

Finally, aren’t we morally obligated to assist these people? According to Peter Singer in Practical Ethics, if allowing a person to die isn’t any different than killing, then by not helping that person, we’re murderers. It is impossible to jus-tify leaving people to die when you have the means to prevent it. Unless helping them means death, you are morally ob-ligated to aid however you can. If we do not help people in need, then how are we human?

In the apocalypse, our humanity will be tested more than it ever has been be-fore. It is not the survival of the body that will be the most important, but sur-vival of the human consciousness. We may fight to the death to live, but in the end all that matters is the fight to stay human.

narian bills, special eco-system setups, and specialized food come into play. Animals such as chimps are the same size or larger than humans and require a large diet, just as humans do. hav-ing large animals is just another three meals to add to the daily grocery list. The ratio of cost of keeping a wild pet to a normal household pet is incredible. Not only are the foods and upkeep of normal household pets much cheaper, but also more available than exotic pets.

Exotic pets, out of fear or anxiety, can harm their owners causing life-chang-ing effects. Some extremely serious cases have occurred over recent years, due to owners owning not only exotic, but also violent pets. In 2009 Charla Nash of Connecticut was mauled by her friend’s 200-pound pet chimpan-

Continued from page 9....



zee, which her friend had had for sev-eral years. According to the New York Times, Nash’s face was torn up as she later revealed on a day-time television show. Both her hands were ripped off, along with her nose, lips, and eyelid. The damage the chimp did to her face is im-mense, and the psychological toll is im-possible to determine. Animals that are unaccustomed to an environment and to people should not be kept with humans as they pose as a safety threat. The fact that dangerous exotic animals can unex-pectedly attack at any time, causing for severe injuries or death should be a stop-ping factor in the purchasing of exotic animals as pets. Animals do not nec-essarily have to be large and vicious to be a threat to owner’s health and safety. The BBC reported that a man had severe eye inflammation after he cleaned out his pet tarantula’s cage. The hairs from the spider had caused for the owner to have the eye problem. Most owners do not calculate all the risks that having an exotic pet can cause. There are numer-ous problems that can arise, even if the animal is labeled as harmless.

With more and more exotic pets com-ing into the household, society needs to realize and understand the poten-tial threat that the animal has. These animals require lots of the owner’s time and energy, can be horribly abused, and inflict harm upon their owners. As long as people house wild animals, however there will be a possibility of severe dan-ger every day.

faces every single day and being able to come to the same place.”

Hopkins is aware that in the current market, teaching jobs aren’t readily available and that she may have to continue her education to find work. “I’ve thought of going back to grad school, [but] I’m not really sure what I’d do,” Hopkins said. “If I did what I wanted to do, it would be something in the field of education,

but seeing as the field of edu-cation is sort of unstable right now, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.” She has also pondered going into an entirely different field. “I’ve thought about go-ing into something with com-puters, like software industry, even though I’m not qualified for any jobs in the industry,” Hopkins said. “That seems like where the future is and that’s where a lot of the growth op-portunities are.”

With her fresh and modern ideas, Hopkins is leav-ing a permanent mark on her classroom. The room now will have the memories of a teacher that as she would say, was a ‘mutation’ from the typical bi-ology teacher.

“There,” Steven remembers, “was a church member who [had been] a doctor in Cuba. He said he must spend ten years to get his diploma in the US. I thought, if I have to spend ten years for my study, [what about] my children’s future? I thought, it’s better not to think about myself instead of the future of my seven children. And I’m glad I did.”

Now six of his seven children have college degrees and all of them have good jobs.

“[That] could not [have] happen[ed] if I stayed in Viet-nam,” Steven remarks.

But which country does Steven prefer? Easy.

“Paradise.”


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By Ximone Willis

By X Willis

Across the Pacific in several weeks

Art by Henry Roberts


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Across from me sits an es-capee and former inmate. His tanned, weathered skin

shows years of sun. You’d never know it, but this man formerly served as a military doctor. Because of that, he was sent to jail.

Although today Steven Hoang lives a sedate retired life in Houston, Texas, only 36 years ago he served as a doc-tor in the South Vietnamese army. When the North Vietnamese com-munists advanced on Saigon, his family’s lives were in jeopardy. Luckily, he and his family managed to scramble aboard an oil tanker in their es-cape from Vietnam the day Saigon fell. Despite having no money, the family managed to lit-erally jump onto an outward-bound ship. Their boarding was nothing short of a miracle, but the trip was nothing short of hellish.

The misfortunes began before

they left port. As they were board-ing, the Viet Cong began shooting at the ship. The captain’s broth-er was forced to launch the ship captain-less, though launch isn’t really the correct term for what happened; crashed-through-the-pier-to-the-sea is. The captain’s brother had never sailed a ship this big and rammed into the pier before managing to get out of the harbor. In the process, a huge hole was rent in the side of the ship. Eventually, the engines stopped run-

ning. According to Lynda Hoang, Steven Hoang’s daughter, they drift-ed for weeks.

“We were almost starved because there [was] not enough food for [the] 3000 souls who [scrambled on board in a panic],” said Steven. But, he continues, “The real nightmare was thirst.”

There was plenty of water, but it was only distributed twice a day and, Ste-ven adds, “our family of nine did not have a container to save water.”

Despite this, Steven was glad to be on the ship. He couldn’t bear living under communist rule again.

“I have experienced living under

communism regime which is intol-erable,” he said. Even now, to him Vietnam represents “government atrocities against its people and the

culture degradation under the communist regime.”

During the reign of the communists, Steven was sent to jail twice.

“The people [who were not members] of the com-munist party were suffer-ing pain, humiliation and indignation,” Steven re-

members. “I was one of them. The difference was [that] I had the au-dacity to stand up against them be-fore they put me in jail.”

“During a campaign to clean up...the remnants of capitalist ideology,” he continues, “most intellectuals, who they considered as obstacles on their way to a communist society, were ar-rested with false accusations.”

“I was one of them,” he recalls. “I did not shut my mouth against indoctri-nating conferences in which they tried to brain wash the populace. Those conferences were held by illit-erate peasants that they considered as proletariats, the back bone cadres of the communist party.”

“I had the au-dacity to stand up

against them”

A photo of Steven Hoang at approxi-mately 25.

An oil tanker similar to the one Steven Hoang and his family traveled the Pacific with.

Art by Andrej Pausic

Phot

o by

Unk

now

n

1914


Feature


But that was just the icing on the cake. According to Steven, “The most important thing [was] maybe [that] I did not adhere to the Union, a satellite organization, which was considered as mandatory for all civil servants [while] working [as a phy-sician] for the most prestigious hos-pital of Thanh Hoa prov-ince.”

After a month in jail, Ste-ven managed to escape to Laos and searched for the office of the Interna-tional Committee (IC). Unfortunately, Laotian communists arrested him and sent him back to Vietnam for a high secu-rity imprisonment without the IC’s knowledge.

One month later, Steven managed to escape again, this time with two friends. He was able to cross into South Vietnam, where he was free.

Then the communists came again.

“A few hours before the collapse of South Vietnam, we jumped on ship along with thousands [of] other[s]

in a panicky mentality,” he recalls. With the multitude of people push-ing to board, it was a miracle that they made it on the ship. There had been two ships moored at the pier; one a cruise ship and the other an oil tanker.

The oil tanker’s gangplank was down and people were streaming on as fast as possible.

“My brother managed to jump the six, seven, eight feet from the pier to the ship,” Lynda said. “From there [he] made it onto the deck. My father handed us over [to him] or threw us up [so that he could catch us].”

They made it onto the deck of the cruise ship and were told to get off.

“My father tried to buy tickets, but his money was useless,” Lynda said. “People had bags and bags of money with them...it was a ship for the rich people.”

The Hoangs jumped onto the oil tanker, which by that time had taken

up its gangplank as well. When the Viet Cong began firing, the ship took off.

A few weeks later, the ship landed in the Philippines.

“When our ship came to the Philip-pines...we thought, ‘We’ve landed [in] paradise!’,” said Steven. “[The US military base] was decorated with colorful Christmas lights while music filled the air.”

For them, recounts Steven, America was “beyond anybody’s imagina-tion.” American life was much easi-er than Vietnamese life due to the re-cent anti-discrimination law; it gave immigrants equal job opportunity. However, the one thing Steven didn’t do was apply for a medical license.

When the family arrived in Houston, they were sponsored by a church via an immigrant-support program.

“But his money was use-less...People had bags and bags of money

”

Steven Hoang and his wife, Lisa, celebrating his 80th birthday...and 36 years in America

Phot

o by

Lyn

da H

oang

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Th e Gardens & Grounds of LBJ 2010-2011

Photos & Design by, Daniel Zimmerman

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is transmitted by mosqui-toes and blood transfu-sions, but primarily the former. Fever and muscle pain can end in destruction of blood cells and respira-

tory failure.

You see a puppy.

Kill

it

Pet it

I care don’t. I bike have a any-way. away Go.

Someone offers you an unidentifiable meat.

No, thanks

Eat it

You’ve lost your car keys.

Don’t be silly. That would never happen.

A POLITOED! It increases mos-quito defense by 60%! Pull out last

pokeball?

YES

No, I have better things to catch

normally follows infection with Streptococcus bacteria. Although antibiotics usually cure the dis-ease, it can return if medications are not taken in the following three to five years. Complications include abnormal heart rhythms

and heart failure.

(new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) is thought to be caused by the introduction of prions, misfolded proteins. Once intro-duced into an organism, prions induce other proteins to misfold as well. In the case of vCJD, this usually results in the mental de-terioration of the infected; the patient suffers dementia and personality changes as well as

motor control loss.

is transmitted between ani-mals via exposure to bodily fluids. The disease attacks the brain, inducing hyrdo-phobia (fear of water) and causing muscle spasms as

well as speech confusion.

is a relative of Ebola, and is tranmitted by contact with infected people or primates. It begins with headache and ends with suffers bleeding out (decomposing their internal organs into bloody pulp and ex-

pelling that waste through all orfices).

By X Willis


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PageDihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011Dihydrogen Oxide: Diffusion: June 2011

TTYL

STFU

ILY

WTH

IKR

TBH

=|

BBL

-_-

:P

GTG

ROFL

:O

>:(

*_*

IDK

WTF

:3

<3

:)

:(

:D

D:

Now try making your own sentence!

Ben Bailey

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Molten glass is dripped into water. The center of the teardrop begins to coll and condense immediately while the outer surface takes a little longer. This forms a vacuum, which renders Prince Rupert’s Drops nearly inde-structible-unless you break the tip of the teardrop. While it is possible to hammer on the fat part of the drop, the tip of the tail is exteremely fragile, and once broken, sets off a chain reaction of increasing violence. Translation: Don’t try this at home (Unless you really want to).

Rick Hap

www.wikimedia.org

More Scientific explosion-esque

things inside

PRINCE

RUPER

T’S

DROPS

A righteous explosion of knowl-edge and sarcasm.

Just like Prince Rupert’s Drops.

Diffusion

Documents

presentthis magazine

different people

charles darwindihydrogen

people dont

different tastes

hes writing

writing thing

long walks