TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013
PAGE 4
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Brunettes do it better, but Russians do it best.
What kind of professor has a test after the all-day "Walking Dead" marathon?
The KU flag on Fraser is holding on for dear life in this wind storm! Its halfway broken off now. (
I was that person that tried to open the wrong door for camping. Hakward.
Crossing the hall in Budig during passing period is like a live version of the game Frogget... Hopefully you make
This is the first Valentine's Day in three years that I haven't had a valentine. So now, the real question is Jack Daniels or Ben and Jerry?
The "go home you're drunk" got old before the semester even started, please stop?
One does not simply one does not simply.
Is it bad that I only shaved my legs in the hope that it would make the Hawks win?
You think you're pretty smart until you have to turn on someone else's shower.
Apparently the world will explode if these girls can't sit next to each other.
Coach Self is incredible. However, I submit that he shouldn't be in the phrase "in God we trust."
Kansas Basketball is my religion. Dr.
James Naismith my God. Forest "Phog"
Aller, my Savior. Bill Self my Prohet.
Allen Fieldhouse my Church. The Rock
Chalk Chant my Prayer. In Bill We Trust.
Why should equality be an issue?
Probably because it hasn't been and still isn't equal.
Yes you can have a wolf as a pet! I had them for 19 years!
A girl just held the women's restroom door open for me as I walked toward water fountain to get a drink. I am not a girl.
As much as I love them, the next time I see a KU basketball player at the Hawk, I'm going to slap them and tell them to go practice.
Your professor's dog looks like Yoda?
Are you sure that's even a real dog??!
EDUCATION
I am extremely superstitious today, but this is KU basketball and anything
To the blonde and brunette who are arguing who does "it" better... I can help settle this.
Can we take a minute to talk about something that doesn't get enough of a spotlight in the FFA? Crunchy chicken wraps.
So wait, are we supposed to go to Watkins when we are sick or when we want to get sick?
A guy in marching band told me he had bad rhythm. Should have known he meant in bed.
Repetition of material not beneficial
Repetition is a key to learning in the modern classroom. However, it cannot displace expectations. Rather than repeat a section that has already been covered in prerequisite courses, professors should expect their students to know the foundational material. This isn't always the case. Often, a professor will simply reteach the prerequisite material. This repetition that displaces expectation is hurting college education.
Repetition has spun out of control within my beloved economics department. I'm sure other departments and disciplines struggle to find a balance between repetition and expectation too. But, because I happen to be studying economics, I will use my economics classes to explain.
We learn a great deal about cost curves in economics. In summary, cost curves model the relationships between the cost of production and the quantity produced.
ECON 142, Principles of Microeconomics, covered cost curves. We learned about what they were and discussed their significance. ECON 520, Intermediate Microeconomics,
covered the same cost curves. We learned about what they were and discussed their significance. This time, we talked about their algebraic relationships too. Finally ECON 600, Industrial Organization, just last week covered cost curves again. Unsurprisingly, we learned about what they were and discussed their significance. This time, we discussed some calculus relationships inherent to cost curves.
I say "some" calculus because many KU economics professors readily admit that they are not supposed to use calculus in their undergraduate courses. The only "calculus" that we've dabbed in has to do with instantaneous rates of change. How fast is Ben McLemore running when he first gets the steal? How fast is he running ten feet from the basket? Five feet from the basket? These are all examples of instantaneous rates of change.
Math isn't for everyone. No one has to understand calculus to live a great, fulfilling life.
However, this aversion to calculus is troubling considering two calculus courses are graduation requirements for any KU economics student. Still, professors
are leery when it comes to even mentioning the calculus foundation for our economic models. It's crazy to think that at our age Isaac Newton was looking at the skies and developing calculus to explain planetary motion. Fast forward a few centuries, and here I am writing a column, afraid to use the word "derivative," and instead opting for a roundabout McLemore analogy and the reader-friendly "instantaneous rate of change." it's maddening to think that calculus is required for graduation but not a part of core classes.
What's worse is that we must spend a month covering the same cost curves every single year, slowly building up to being able to even mention calculus. I cringe when I hear an instructor say, "Now you may have seen this before," while pointing at a cost
curve. May have? Of course we've seen it before. We've seen it every single year. The only difference this time is that this explanation of a cost curve involves the slightest amount of calculus, which we probably should have been using from the start.
Although dull and draining, professors continue to reteach cost curves year after year instead of expecting students to know them. On the flip side, students are perfectly fine with that. It's easy to just sit back and listen to something we've heard before. It's as if students and professors mutually agree that the expectation of learning exactly what was learned last year is fine. It's an unspoken pact that our instruction and our learning, as a result of students and professors, will be subpar. This culture of complacency is sucking the life out of what college education could be.
Why couldn't we learn about cost curves as freshman, research cost of production data to model ideal cost curves as sophomores and then compare our ideal models to local businesses as Juniors?
Instead, we learn the same relationships, the same equations and a splash a little calculus on it
just to mix it up.
We could build up our educations rather than replace the foundation over and over. Instead of graduating with magnificent education castles, we leave KU four years later with the same foundation that we finished freshman year. There is no excuse to not know cost curve calculations the third time around. You may not have the same distinct experience as I have with cost curves, but surely you understand the feeling — the feeling of time wasted, underachieving and restlessness.
Maybe you have the desire for discovery, the intellectual curiosity that keeps telling you this repetition is not OK. I know where I stand. In fact, I'm hoping that come next fall, we won't review cost curves in ECON 700, Survey of Microeconomics. You can expect me to know what they are.
Ouyang is a junior majoring in petroleum engineering and economics from Overland Park. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisOuyang.
SOCIETY
Whale community a place to find inspiration on land
If you are looking for a new role model, I suggest turning your attention to the ocean.
I'll be honest; I love whales a little more than the average person. I was in fifth grade at the Shedd Aquarium when I decided I was going to devote my life in pursuit of becoming a Beluga Whale Trainer.
I think there is a lot to learn from these magnificent creatures. Whales exemplify ideals that we all wish we could live up to everyday. Yes, there are plenty of examples within our human life, but there is something about whales that makes daily inspiration just a little more potent.
Whales accept everyone. Although behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause warn about reading too much into this story, ScienceNOW reports over a group of sperm whales that have taken in a bottlenose dolphin with a spine deformity. It is speculated that this disfigured dolphin either couldn't keep up or was kicked out of his dolphin group. Sperm whales don't usually commingle with other species so although cautioned, I still think this is adorable and inspiring. Alexander Wilson and Jens Krauser reported reciprocated nuzzling; if that doesn't scream acceptance, I'm not sure what does.
Whales really know how to take a deep breath. Whales can exchange 85 to 90 percent of their air while humans exchange about 15 percent. You may be thinking it is because they have way bigger lungs, yet as Alex
Brylske said, whales have about half the lung volume of terrestrial mammals proportionally.
Whales relate to others, even if it means speaking another language. Recently, a beluga whale named NOC received a lot of attention for mimicking human conversation. He transcended his normal octaves to make humanlike sounds. BBC reports, the mimicry was not easy. To amplify the comparatively low-frequency parts of the vocalizations, NOC over-inflated the vestibular sac in his blowhole, which usually keeps water from entering the lungs.
Whales know how to love. Patrick Hof and Estel Van Der Gucht of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology discovered the presence of spindle cells in humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales and sperm whales. Based on the human experience of these cells, this discovery suggests that whales are capable of experiencing love as well as deep-rooted emotional suffering
Whales have a unique culture. According to Reader's, Professor Hal Whitehead said, "until a few hundred thousand years ago most of the culture was in the ocean. Certainly the most
sophisticated cultures on Earth were whales and dolphins, until the strange bipedal hominid evolved." Each species has a different culture much like different populations of humans have different cultures. Their culture hinges on their method of communication, their pod structure and their hunting technique. Each species has a set of societal rules much like us. Lori Marino, a member of the group of scientists who produced Declaration of Rights for Cetacea, said, "killer whales, for instance, do not kill or even seriously harm one another in the wild, despite the fact that there is competition for prey and mates and there are disagreements. Their social rules prohibit real violence, and they seem to have worked out a way to peacefully manage the partitioning of resources among different groups. That is something we humans haven't done yet."
Beyond respecting each other, whales show gratitude. New York Times reports that in December 2005, a humpback whale was trapped in crab-trap lines. A rescue team arrived and got in the water and cut her out. Once the whale was free, she continued to swim around the divers and returned and nudged them all gently as if to show her thanks.
So next time you are looking for some inspiration, think of our underwater friends. Where there is a whale, there is a way.
Stern is a freshman majoring in biology from Lawrence.
CHIRPS BACK
TELEVISION
Cold War drama back in FX show
Would the writers avoid the multitude of spy story clichés? Would they just make it a story about conflicting ideologies, ignoring the characters? Would it be all action and no plot?
I've always had a not-so-soft obsession with American-Soviet relations during the Cold War. So when I heard about FX's newest TV addition, "The Americans," I was thrilled.
"The Americans" focuses on Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Phillip Jennings (Matthew Rhys). KGB spies living in America during the 1980s. But even with the amazing promos, I had my concerns.
Spoiler alert, but so far, none of the above.
It's only two episodes in, but they've managed to avoid too much action and give the characters some depth. Philip is struggling with his loyalty to the motherland and is considering defecting to America, while Elizabeth is determined to follow orders, but her relationship with Philip and her children might be the downfall of her unshakeable loyalty.
I'm fascinated with the interaction between Elizabeth and Philip, and I can't wait to see how their relationship progresses throughout the show. A fake marriage to create a better identity in America? An expectation of children and affection between the two by their Russian bosses? Yeah, that is going to create an interesting relationship. Especially as the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States escalates, and their assignments become more and more dangerous.
My only complaint is that I wish there would have been more flashbacks in the second episode. I want to know how they created their identities and how they grew to be an actual couple from such a scenario. But the pilot gave us plenty of those, showing us Elizabeth's training in the motherland and the couple's
The physical skills of the characters are realistic, and all the spy technology is practical and believable. They aren't perfect. Elizabeth and Phillip make mistakes, feel and doubt like normal people.
first meeting.
For the first time in my entire life, I'm actually rooting for the Russians. And that isn't something I thought I would ever say.
There are also moments where it got a little weird. Like how Elizabeth and Phillip are married but regularly use sex to get information. Or how Philip and his daughter Paige (who happens to know nothing about her parents being Russian spies and is a model American capitalist) encounter a pedophile in the mall.
The only cliché I've encountered is the arrival of the Jennings' new neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Agent who happens to be currently working to flush out all KGB spies living in America. Of course, this is purely by accident, and Beeman has no idea he's living next to two highly-trained KGB operatives. What a coincidence.
From what I've seen so far,
"The Americans" isn't going to
be a happy-g lucky type show.
There is going to be angst, angst
and more angst. But that's sort of
necessary for a storyline like this.
I can't wait to learn more about their training and the political war going on in the background.
To check out this show for yourself, flip to FX on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
Brown is a freshman majoring in journalism from Overland Park.
@EvanMcInnis
@UDK_Opinion The Grammys are garbage.
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