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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2008
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOLUME 120 ISSUE 10
TRADITION
Missing: Familiar sound of whistle
University shuts down steam whistle because of the rising cost of gas needed for its operation
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
BY B.J. RAINS
rains@kansan.com
It appears that one of the longest and most recognizable traditions on campus has come to an end.
The sound of the steam whistle has been present on the University of Kansas campus since 1912, but the whistle was recently shut off to cut back on costs of gas.
The steam whistle — used since the original was installed in 1912 — has gone quiet.
Because of rising enpus, the University decided that the approximately $3,000 it costs per year to run the whistle was just too much.
"It's been shut off due to the cost of utilities," said Doug Riat, director of Facilities Operations. "We were asked what the cost of
and $6 each time the whistle blew. When the decision to shut off the whistle was made in July, natural gas costs looked as if they were going to escalate to record
"It's very disappointing to hear this. It's like the end of an era."
blowing the whistle was and we provided the information and from that there was a desire in the provost's office to not have the whistle blow, at least at this time."
highs. Natural gas is needed to boil water in a boiler that produces the steam to power the whistle.
Riat estimated that it cost between $5
CESAR MILLAN 1997 graduate
which had been in place since 1939, broke and was not reparable. At that time, the University had no plans to replace the whistle because of the rising costs to run it. A donor came forward, however, and
"It looked like it was going to be a very expensive year to produce steam." Riat said.
The current whistle was built in 2003 after the previous whistle,
paid almost $7,000 for a new whistle to be installed.
The whistle's sound has provided an almost comforting feeling for alumni, who return to campus and hear the whistle — bringing back vivid memories of their times as students.
"It's very unique and I definitely remember it from times at school there," said Cesar Millan, a 1997 graduate who lives in St. Louis. "You knew exactly what it meant when you heard it. It's very disappointing to hear this. It's like the end of an era. I'm sure the alumni won't be too happy to hear about this because it's definitely one of the traditions that makes Kansas so great and historic."
Facilities Operations deemed the price tag for the short three-second blow too
RECOGNITION
SEE WHISTLE ON PAGE 4A
20 professors presented with Kemper fellowships
A surprise patrol led by Chancellor Robert Hemenway awarded 16 University professors with $5,000 Kemper Fellowships during the past two weeks. Four professors at the KU Medical Center also received fellowships.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
CAMPUS
Lied event showcases sobriety
FAFSA form shortened for applicants
Five students will take field sobriety tests after consuming different levels of alcohol in front of an audience at the Lied Center tonight. The students will be participating in "Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself"; an event designed to show how alcohol can impair reaction time.
FULL STORY PAGE 4A
RESURRECTING THE SABER-TOOTHED CAT
FINANCIAL AID
Some students could see a shortened FAFSA form now that President Bush has signed the Higher Education Act reauthorization legislation into law. But the proposed form isn't without its flaws, some experts say.
FULL STORY PAGE 5A
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Larry Martin cuddles up to a pair of saber-toothed cat skulls in the University's Natural History Museum. Martin, curator of vertebrae pathology at the museum, will give a talk about the animal's metamorphoses tonight.
Challenging old ideas about Ice Age mammal
Larry Martin discusses the possibility that the prehistoric cat became extinct, re-evolved up to nine times
BY BETSY CUTCLIFF bcutcliffkansan.com
In his 38 years of research, Larry D. Martin, a world expert on saber-toothed carnivores, discovered the possibility that instead of remaining extinct, the cats morphed into different species.
Saber-toothed cats might not be extinct, and tonight the curator of vertebrae pathology for the University of Kansas Natural History Museum will address the possibility that the iconic Ice Age animal had more than nine lives.
Martin said the lecture, which is the first of a series titled "Wild Science," was intended to re-educate people about extinction.
"Saber-toothed cats have become extinct and re-evolved, maybe as many as nine times," Martin said. "There has been a whole series of originations of saber-toothed cats, and most of the time they don't even
look like cats."
Saber-toothed cats, with their sharp fangs and prowling physique, are some of the most familiar mammals from the Cenozoic period, more commonly known as the last Ice Age.
He said these metamorphoses, called ecomorphs, suggested that entirely new species could originate from adaptations of an extinct animal. These ecomorphs, according to Martin, are not isolated incidences, but are repeated patterns through history.
Martin said the cats appeared more than once throughout history, morphing and evolving several times.
Martin said the saber-toothed cat was the perfect example of an ecomorphed species because of how well-spaced the new species were through time.
One cause of this morphing was the animal's inability to learn from the past and adapt accordingly.
"Humans are a curious species in one particular thing, and that is that we wonder about things that have no apparent value," Martin said. "What we do is we go out and we collect useless knowledge and store it away, and when the world changes we will make this knowledge useful. Other species have to start from scratch."
In a report on ecomorphing published in the German journal Natur Wissenschaften, Martin said, it was reported that another cause of the phenomenon was climatic change.
For example, after one species dies out because of the inability to adapt to a new climate, another similar species evolves with the biological tools to succeed where the other failed.
Amanda Falk, Milan, Mich., graduate student, helped with Martin's research and said she thought students should be more aware of the work of paleontologists such as Martin at the Natural History
"What he is talking about is extinction and re-evolution," Falk said. "You don't get that kind of controversial exposure anywhere else."
According to a U.S. News report, the University's paleontology program is ranked sixth in the nation.
Museum.
Desui Miao, collection manager at the Museum, said that prestige was partly due to Martin's work.
"People all over the world will call us if they have a question about vertebrae paleontology," Miao said.
According to the department of paleontology's Web site, Martin has unearthed more than 200,000 fossils. He has written two books and nearly 400 articles on various topics.
index
Martin's hour-long talk will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Dyce Hall.
— Edited by Mary Sorrick
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