ESCAPEsmile. EXPLORE. relax. / Jan. 23 / weekend

+more online @oudaily.com/escape

an intellectual

dinner party

HOST

feed your brain

smart appsTRAIN YOUR BRAIN WITH

SOME TECH TRICKS

video games

+TEDxOU

brain foodsEAT LIKE A SCIENTIST

Plan a safe ESCAPE.Keeping OU safe

is your job.our_

OU’s Behavior Intervention Team

Report Online: ou.edu/normanBITIf a person is an immediate threat to themselves or someone else or is

incapable of caring for themselves, CALL 911.

Experienced Sexual Assault?There is Help.

Call SARTOU’s Sexual Assault Response Team

405.615.00137 days a week, 24 hours a day

&HOTLINE405.325.5000

Call because it’s wrong, it’s stupid, andOU students are so much better than that.

HAZINGALCOHOL

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Escape is a student-produced publication of OU Student Media, a department in the Division of Student Affairs. Copyright 2014 OU Student Media.

4 Something local

5 from dancer to choreographer

6 host an intellectual dinner party

7 brain foods

8 feed your curiousity

9 social games expert

10 greek row

11 train your brain

12 ted talks to watch

ESCAPEcontents

Jan. 23

on the coverRubik’s Cubephoto by taylor bolton

5things to do this

weekend1.

what: women’s basketball

when: 7 p.m. saturday

where: lloyd noble center

Watch our women’s basketball team take on TCU Saturday night. Show up and help the team continue its winning season.

what: pizza planet

when: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow

where: Oklahoma Memorial Union’s first

floor

Enjoy free pizza at lunch, courtesy of the Union Programming Board. Get some fuel for laser tag in the evening!

what: free movie, “About time”

when: showings at 7 and 10 p.m. tomorrow

where: oklahoma memorial union’s meacham

auditorium

See a free showing of “About Time,” a time traveling romance starring Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson.

what: billy joe winghead and sonic vio-

lence at opolis

when: 8 p.m. saturday

where: opolis

Hear “sleaze-rock” band Billy Joe Winghead rock Opolis Saturday night. Remember concerts at Opolis are 21 and over.

what: upb laser tag

when: 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow

where: oklahoma memorial union’s molly shi

boren ballroom

The Union Programming Board is bringing laser tag to campus. The ballroom will be filled with inflatables to serve as bunkers.

2 .

3 .

4 .

5 .

3

contributors

conner golden

Copy Chief

@hoonthatsc

Miranda sanchez

@chicadelamusica

Graham Dudley

@danger_dudley

kate mcpherson

assistant editor

@katemcp92

hannah norton

@hmnorton

contact us!Let us know what you think. We really want your feed-back. Seriously.

email: escapeou@gmail.com

twitter: @OU_Escape

The Oklahoma Daily EditorKyle Margerum

Editorial AdviserJudy Gibbs Robinson

Advertising ManagerKearsten Howland

Advertising AdviserAnne Richard

Megan Deaton, editor-in chief

@meggiejennie

After the “syllabus week” of school, it’s time to get down to business. With the TEDxOU event this Friday, we think it’s a good time to “feed your brain,” and get some inspiration for the semester ahead.

In that spirit, this issue is focused on giving you activities that are both entertaining and smart. We’ll show you how to host your own intellectual dinner party (pg. 6) and even pro-vide some “brain foods” to serve your guests (pg. 7).

If you can’t make it to TEDxOU, but you still want to keep your mind sharp, see our list of documentaries that coincide with some of the topics being discussed at TEDxOU.

For those of you who aren’t really feeling like challenging your mind (school is hard, we get it), see our “Something Local” segment to learn about a student who is starting his own record label (pg. 4). Finally, be sure to see our profile of a dancer turned choreographer performing in the Young Choreographers’ Showcase this weekend (pg. 5).

brain-spiration

taylor bolton/oudaily

localSomethingAn OU student is starting his own record label

with the help of his bandmate. Communications junior Garrett Holt and his roommate Robbie Fetter are transitioning from musicians to producers with the start of their new record label, Squonk Records.

Holt and Fetter previously collaborated in their band, Pizza Thieves, a high energy band with a garage rock sound. I sat down with Holt to ask about the process of starting a record label while keeping up with his duties as a student.

Q: So what made you decide to start a record label?

A: Robbie and I had kicked around the idea for years now, and we’ve always wanted to do it. I know I specifically, I’ve never been a fan of digital music. I don’t like buying music online or buying it from iTunes because I feel like I’m not getting anything for what I’m buying. I like getting the physical copy. I like being able to hold it. I like the jacket, the cover, the album art. It feels like having an actual art piece that you’re purchasing instead of just purchasing files on the computer.

Q: Is vinyl all you produce? Do you also put out CDs?

a: We don’t have any plans to do any CDs. Our focus is primarily on vinyl, but we’ve thought about doing some cassette releases as well because that’s also another thing that’s popular right now and they’re really cheap to make. So I think that’s easier for records we know less about or don’t know how well they’re going to do. We could do cassette releases instead of a full vinyl.

Q: What all goes into starting a record label?

A: It’s mostly just filing a lot of paperwork with the state. Like you have to get your tax forms in. You’ve got to get a business license. You have to set up a bank account. You have to have business bank-ing and everything. For what we do, that’s pretty much it.

Q: Do you have a space you record in?

A: We don’t as of yet. We’re thinking about possibly working on starting to have a place that other people record in and do stuff. As of now, since we’re just starting, we don’t have a ton of capital.

We’re just focusing on music that’s already recorded but doesn’t have a way to get onto get onto a physical vinyl copy.

Q: So basically they bring their music to you, and you send it to be made on vinyl?

A: Yeah, we send it. We work with a company called Pirate’s Press in San Francisco. They specialize in vinyl pressing but they do all kinds of stuff there. They’re a really cool company … So we get the masters of the stuff from the artist and we send that to Pirate’s Press and they press it onto vinyl and they send it back to us.

Q: You’re also a student. How is it being a student and trying to run a business?

A: I don’t want to say that it’s like, easier than you think, but it kind of is. Since we’re the owners and we’re like working on this ourselves on our own time it’s not like we have any specific dead-lines. It’s not like someone is yelling at us to get it done, so it’s kind of nice that we can just do it in our own time. Plus Robby does a lot of the actual getting stuff done part. I’m a motivator mostly.

4

megan deaton | Q&A

Q: What bands have you produced records for so far?

A: We haven’t put anything out yet fully. Our first thing, the band we’re working with is called Poolboy. They’re from Norman … They’re really, really fun. We’re super excited about their record. We’re putting it on clear vinyl with pink haze, so we’re just really excited to be able to take the record and do something cool graphi-cally with it and make it a nice art piece kind of thing.

Q: When you produce this record will it be sold in stores here?

a: I think the primary market for it will be the band selling it at concerts. That’s a lot of why we want to do the physical release because people will see a show and they like the music and they might buy the record so they can have it as like a souvenir for the night. But it will also be in the Guestroom shops, and we’re looking into getting a distribution deal so it can be sent out to different places around the country.

garrett holtstudent, musician, founder of his own record label

tony ragle/ou daily

Garrett Holt and Robbie Fetter hang out in Guestroom Records where the first record they’re producing will be sold.

STEPPING OUTSTEPPING OUT

caleb smutzer/ou daily

A dancer challenges herself with this year’s presentation of the Young Choreographers’ Showcase.

Nicole Reehorst is no stranger to the Young Choreographers’ Showcase. She first participated as a dancer her freshman year and had to perform a graduate student’s unusual choreography.

“The part that I was playing, I came out of the audience and climbed up on the stage wearing lumberjack clothes and boots over my pointe shoes, and we had one of the [Mario] game-type guns. That’s how the piece started,” she said. “That was definitely out of my comfort zone.”

Her “comfort zone” is something that Reehorst mentioned a lot, as in push-ing it and getting out of it. As a ballet performance junior, Reehorst has done plenty of comfort-zone pushing in her five semesters at one of the nation’s best dance programs.

This year, it’s Reehorst’s turn to choreograph for the Young Choreographers’ Showcase, and while she’s decided to avoid the Mario route, that doesn’t mean she’s not challenging herself.

Reehorst’s piece, “Eius Belli” (Latin for “Her War”), is two move-ments of barefoot, boundary-pushing dance that starts off small and then explodes into a frenetic pace.

“At first, I wanted to do something that was more legato and slow, because that’s what I’m more comfortable with, personal-

ly,” she said.But when her old friend Chase Ward

introduced her to Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor, there was no going back.

“Sometimes when you hear music, as a dancer, you can just picture choreography to it,” Reehorst said. “I definitely experi-enced that when I first heard this.”

Ward, a violin performance sophomore, said he met Reehorst back in boarding

school at Michigan’s presti-gious Interlochen Center for the Arts.

When Reehorst needed help selecting her music for the piece, she sent Ward a Facebook message asking if he’d help out. Ward was learning the Shostakovich piece as an assignment — he plays first violin for the OU Honors String Quartet.

Reehorst said the contrast-ing nature of the symphony’s first two movements is a big part of what drew her in. The first movement, she said, is “quiet and contained,” but the second is “aggressive and relentless from start to finish.”

“The second movement is a direct depic-tion of a war scene, so the tempo is very quick,” Ward said. “As one person is solo-ing, the rest of the quartet has these kind of bombs that go off, so they’re really short notes and you play them at the frog of the bow, which is where you get the most grit

and short sound.”The music was such an important part of

the piece, in fact, that the two decided to have the movements performed live by the Honors String Quartet. They will stand upstage center and play as the dancers move around them, Ward said.

Melanie Jensen, a junior ballet performance major, is one of five women Reehorst cast in her piece. She said she loves the decision to

involve the quartet.“To have them as a part of the viewing

aspect is really different, because usually the orchestra’s on the side during a dance piece,” she said. “I think it’s brilliant.”

It’s all made possible by the unique format of the Young Choreographers’ Showcase.

“The reason people come to YCS and are so inspired by it is that it’s so new and fresh every single year,” Jensen said. “You never really know what you’re going to experience.”

Reehorst, who praised her entire cast for their work on the piece, wouldn’t speculate as to the quality of her choreography so far.

“But I can say that I absolutely love it, she said. “I can’t wait for my next experience.”

Whenever her next opportunity does come, don’t expect Reehorst to think inside the box. Her comfort zone doesn’t stand a chance.

“the reason people

come to ycs and

are so inspired

by it is that it’s

so new and fresh

every single year.”

melanie Jensen, ballet

performance junior

go and do young choreographers’ showcase

When: 8 p.m., Jan. 23-26

Where: Reynolds Performing Arts Center

STEPPING OUT

5

Ballet performance junior Nicole Reehorst choreographs a dance rehearsal.

graham dudley | feature

host an TED talks are pointless if you don’t share them with others. The conference’s tagline is “ideas worth spreading,” and if you don’t talk about

the talks with your friends, neighbors and/or random person on the street, you aren’t getting everything you could out of the event.Make discussion easier by hosting an intellectual dinner party. Follow these steps below to make your party a success:

Cherry pick your guests. You do not have to invite your best friend. You do not have to invite your roommate. Invite a group of five to nine people who come from differ-ent backgrounds, yet have similar outlooks on life. This will ensure you don’t have easy or repetitive conversations (like you would if you only invited physicists or only Oklahomans), but it’ll help conversa-tions flow more easily among people who might not know each other.

1. 2.Start a conversation. Remember how Grandma made the whole family go around the table on Thanksgiving to say what you were thankful for? The same concept applies here. Ask everyone to list the last book they read or the best teacher they ever had — and make them explain why.

Have an inspiring menu. Your regular drunk food isn’t

going to cut muster. Go out on a limb and try something your average college student won’t eat every week. Whether that’s cooking from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” or preparing a simple Greek dish, serve some-thing that will get conversation started. Pro tip: if you’re going to be boozing, serve wine. It just seems fancier than PBR or a cosmo.

3.Make a seating chart. It seems very elementary school, but think about it — if you let people fend for themselves, they will naturally end up sitting next to people they already know or the first person they start a conversation with. Assigning seats guarantees people you think might have interesting conversations will actually get a chance to meet and chat.

4.

Have a backup plan. Conversation can sometimes become stilted, so be ready to revive the party. Have a few controversial talks lined up to discuss at length, or come up with a team-based game to play that will encourage communication.

5.

6 7

Kate Mcpherson | entertaining

feed your megan deaton | food

DON’T FORGET TO SERVE UP SOME BRAIN FOOD

We all know what you eat can affect your general health, but certain foods are particularly good for your brain function. Set the tone for your dinner party

(or just your Monday morning) with some of these brain foods to get those thinking juices fl owing.

Almonds are just one example of a whole family of nuts that contain high levels of vitamin E. This vitamin is known to prevent decreased brain function as you age.

Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin K, a supplement known to enhance cognitive function and brainpower, ac-cording to WebMD.

In addition to being delicious, blueberries give a boost to your brain. The fruit has been shown to reduce the risk of age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as improving motor skills and learning capacity, according to WebMD.

The merits of this controversial fruit (vegetable? No, fruit), seem to be endless. Avocado contains a healthy kind of fat that promotes blood fl ow, something your brain needs in large sup-ply, according to doctor and well-known author Steven Pratt.

You’ve probably heard plenty of buzz about omega-3 fatty acids. This nutritious element has been linked to improved focus and memory, and fatty fi sh like salmon are overfl owing with it.

brain boosting recipeavocado and salmon spring rolls

INgredients:

Spring rolls:

+ 4 ripe avocados, cut into 48 slices+ 2, 3 to 4 ounce packages smoked wild salmon, cut into 12 strips+ 12 eight inch rice-paper wrappers (can be found in the Asian food section of your grocery store or in an Asian food store)+ 1 cup shredded carrot+ 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

Dipping Sauce:

+ 1/3 cup soy sauce+ 2 tablespoons orange juice+ 2 tablespoons lemon juice+ 2 tablespoons mirin (look for it in the super-market with other Asian ingredients, dry sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar is a good substi-tute)+ 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

preparation:

1.) Soak one rice-paper wrapper at a time in a shal-low dish of very hot water for about 30 seconds. Lift out, dripping the excess water off, and lay on a dry cutting board.

2.) Center a strip of smoked salmon in the bottom third of the wrapper. Leave a one inch border on the sides. Top the salmon with four avocado slices, one tablespoon shredded carrot and about two teaspoons of basil and mint.

3.) Fold the wrapper over the fi lling and roll into a tight cylinder, folding in the sides as you go. Cut the fi nished roll in half.

4.) Repeat to make the rest of the rolls.

5.) To prepare the dipping sauce, whisk all ingredi-ents in a small serving bowl.

Tip: If you want to make the rolls ahead of time, wrap individually in parchment or wax paper and refrigerate for up to four hours.

8

TEDxOU will have a variety of speakers covering a wide range of topics, from the hunger problem in America to the power of empathy and shared experience in social change. Unable to make it to TEDxOU? Interested in watching longer films about some of the topics being covered in TED Talks this year? I have a list for you! There are a large number of documentaries avail-able for public consumption with just a few clicks of a keyboard. Although it was diffi-cult to narrow the list down, here are a few documentaries sharing powerful stories.

hannah norton | film

Akash Patel will be talking about his working with immigrants and his passion for immigration reform during TEDxOU. There are many documentaries about immigration, but I found “Which Way Home” to be particularly moving. This doc-umentary follows several children who are trying to get from Mexico and parts of Central America to the U.S. It discusses the difficulties of the journey and how these children’s difficulties do not simply disappear when they enter the U.S.

which way home

“Climate of Doubt” examines how climate change and conservation has been politicized and debated so much over the years that it has been pushed off the political agenda. Frontline argues that climate change was once an important political issue, but has recently become entrenched in doubt. The documentary discusses those organizations who have made a profit off of casting doubt on the science and researchers behind the idea of global warming and climate change, and what this doubt might mean for the earth’s future. Melanie Maguire will be talking about conservation for profit during her TED Talk, so if you are interested in learning more about environmental pressures “Climate of Doubt” is the documentary for you.

climate of doubt

“A Place at the Table” is a documentary about child hunger in America. It follows the lives of three different people who are not sure where their next meals will come from: a mother in Philadelphia, a fifth-grader in Colorado, and a second-grader in Mississippi. “A Place at the Table” shows the viewer that, although America makes more than enough food, there are still more than fifty million people in the U.S. who are going hungry. Feed the Children will be at TEDxOU this week, and if you are interested in learning more about the hunger problem in America, check out this documentary. Although the website, only has a trailer, there are full-length versions available through Netflix and Amazon Prime.

a place at the table

This PBS special tells the story of a man recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, the same disease that has afflicted his father and his brother. Detailing treatment options and research breakthroughs, “My Father, My Brother, and Me” is about the research being performed on this debilitating and heartbreaking disease, and gives the viewer a hopeful outlook for the future. At TEDxOU, Dr. Nicole Jarvis will be talking about her work in Parkinson’s research. If you are interested in learning more about the disease as a whole, check out this documentary on the PBS web-site.

my father, my brother, and mePart of a larger collection of videos on empathy, “Empathy

Healthcare Cafe” is about the importance of empathy in health-care. What is interesting about this project is that it does not just discuss the idea of empathy or the importance of emotion when taking care of patients. It goes further, detailing ideas on becoming more empathetic and why it is important in the patient-physician interaction. If healthcare is not your primary interest, there are also many other video projects based on the power of empathy. I encourage you to go and explore the website, where you can find videos on everything from navigating the business world to medi-tation. Check out this series of videos if you are interested in Jake Morgan’s and Neal Walia’s presentation tomorrow.

empathy

healthcare

cafe

feed your

9

thinking social

miranda sanchez | profile

Building the video game community

photo provided

James Simpson is a video game developer and will soon speak at the TEDxOU event about creating social video games that build the gaming community.

TEDxOU speaker and CEO of GoldFire Studios James Simpson is a video game developer. Specifically, Simpson is a developer with a focus on social games, but not the games like “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars” that plague Facebook time-lines and notifi-cations.

“We see other social games out there from com-panies like Zynga, and games like “FarmVille” which is obviously social, and we see those as games that aren’t actually social,” said Simpson.

While “FarmVille” can be played on Facebook and link players with their friends, there’s no real conversation going on in the game, Simpson said. He said he believes one of the best examples of a social game is “World of Warcraft” because of the level of inter-action that occurs within the game.

After graduating from OU in 2011 with an entrepreneurship and venture

management degree, Simpson went

on to create GoldFire Studios in Oklahoma City with a plan to develop his own

version of social games.

“We’re focusing on truly social games, which focus on building com-

munities around the games and provid-ing real-time, interactive experiences,” Simpson said.

GoldFire Studios’ newest game, “Casino RPG,” is Simpson’s prime example of a truly social game. “Casino RPG” is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG. Though players won’t find themselves hacking through enemies like in “World of Warcraft,” they can hit the slots, play poker and blackjack and build their own casinos — and, of course, interact with other players.

Right now, “Casino RPG” is still in beta, meaning it is still changing and receiving updates, but is currently free and playable, Simpson said. Even once they’ve finalized the game, Simpson said they plan on continuing to develop the game and hope people continue to play, not just for the gameplay, but for the community aspects as well.

Through these types of games, Simpson believes they have the power to transcend cultural bound-aries and make a positive impact.

“My [TEDxOU] talk is about how video games are able to enact pretty much sweeping social changes through-out the world,” Simpson said.

Furthermore, Simpson said he wants to bring attention to how the percep-tion of games doesn’t properly reflect the reality of games, especially when it comes to the mainstream view of games.

Though there are plenty of incorrect stereotypes about video games, Simpson said he will be sure to explain the dif-ference between truly social games and those that are not.

backgroundIn addition to creating the first video game studio in Oklahoma, Simpson is

making Oklahoma a more welcoming space for others interested in video game development.

In 2013, Simpson founded the Oklahoma Game Developers, and organiza-tion dedicated to bring together developers. Once a month, Simpson said the group meets to listen to a guest speaker or engage in a game development work-shop.

“We weren’t sure how many people we would have coming to the meetings,” Simpson said. Their first meeting saw over 60 participants, he said.

Now the organization has over 150 members and counting. Though GoldFire Studios was the first game studio in Oklahoma City, they are no longer alone.

“Over the last year we’ve seen a lot more smaller indie game studios start to pop up,” Simpson said. ”Things are definitely starting to expand here in Oklahoma.”

For more information about the Oklahoma Game Developers group, visit okgamedev.com for details.

Video game developer and OU alumnus James Simpson is working to

enact social change with interactive community video games. Simpson

will be a speaker at the TEDxOU event tomorrow.

Dnot social

Csocial

Csocial

10

Greek

Melanie Maguire is a Gamma Phi on a mission. The economics senior said she believes the application of economics can solve many of the world’s problems, as she’ll communicate in her speech at TEDxOU tomorrow.

“I think economics can save the world, but I think it’s a matter of communicat-ing it,” Maguire said.

Maguire didn’t always know econom-ics would be her passion.

“I realized I was more excited about going to class and learning about taxes than all of my friends were,” Maguire said.

Hooked on economics, in Spring 2012 Maguire started researching a concept called community based natural resource management. The concept is the idea that an entire tract of land and all the wildlife on it is given to local people who own and manage it to make it a profit yielding investment. The idea is especial-ly useful when dealing with endangered species.

“The idea is that if you turn endan-gered species into something that can turn a profit, all of the sudden people have an incentive to protect them,” Maguire said.

Last semester, Maguire traveled to Peru and got a chance to see some of her research in action.

“All I really found out was that it didn’t work,” Maguire said. “Peru kind of changed it a little because I saw what was wrong. It does have to be a carefully crafted program.”

Maguire has been taking what she learned in Peru and applying it to her research. Now, she has a chance to share her ideas with a huge audience.

“I’ve always loved TED Talks,” Maguire said. “At the second [TEDxOU] I saw the first student speaker and real-ized that was a thing. I knew I wanted to do it the next year.”

After auditioning for TEDxOU at the end of last year, Maguire has been care-fully crafting and editing her speech.

“As you can see, I talk pretty freely,” Maguire said. “I think the trick was put-ting it into a structured speech.”

Maguire certainly does talk freely, with an eloquence that only comes naturally.

“I’ve always been pretty outgoing,” Maguire said. “I think I was that preco-cious child that takes the lead and talks to strangers.”

Maguire’s confident voice has received ample support from her friends and fam-

ily, many of whom plan to attend her TED Talk.

“There was really an outpouring of support,” Maguire said. “Especially my sorority, they tweeted you know, ‘Can’t wait to see Melanie.’ A lot of my sisters have said they’re coming.”

After the TED Talk, Maguire has plans to graduate and head to graduate school. She said she doesn’t know where, but it’s definitely in her future. And after that?

“My dream job would be to be the go-between and to be the person that

learns the economic research, speaks their language and then cultivates it and takes it to the policymakers and says, ‘Hey look at this. We can do this,’” Maguire said.

But first, Maguire needs to get through her speech tomorrow, though she doesn’t seem to have any real anxiety about speaking in front of an audience filled with intelligent people.

“I’m really excited,” Maguire said. “This is like checking something off your bucket list at 21. It’s a dream come true really.”

megan deaton | profile

“there was really an outpouring of

support. especially my sorority they

tweeted you know, ‘can’t wait to see melanie.’ a lot of my sisters have

said they’re coming.”

melanie Maguire,

economics senior, tedxou

speaker, gamma phi

photo provided

Economics senior Melanie Maguire studied community based resource managment while studying abroad in Peru.

Rowextraordinary economics

Melanie Maguire believes “economics can save the world.” The Gamma Phi economics senior will be speaking about environmental conservation at the third annual TEDxOU event tomorrow.

”

Got

Textbooks?

Visit Bizzell Memorial Library, OU Libraries’ website at http://libraries.ou.edu/textbooks or call (405) 325-4142

University of Oklahoma Libraries

provides selected textbooks on reserve in Bizzell Memorial

Library

1 1

train your brainapps to keep your mind sharpkate mcpherson | technology

Don’t listen to your tech-fearing grandma: Apps are a great way to feed your brain. Check out some of these to learn something new.

(iOS and Android) Always wanted to learn a new language without

signing up for that five-hour 8 a.m. class? Duolingo’s app can help teach you Spanish, French, German, Portuguese or Italian. The courses are completely free — there aren’t even any ads. By playing games and competing against friends, you’ll become motivated to master a new language or five.

duolingo

khan academy(iOS and Windows)If you want to master organic chemistry, computer

programming or art history, enroll at Khan Academy. You’ll have access to thousands of short lectures on the topic of your choosing. You get badges for all the learning you do … you know, in case you want to brag to your friends in real life.

how stuff works(iOS and Android) Ever wondered how power plants get you electric-

ity or how your toilet works? You need How Stuff Works. Produced by the Discovery Channel, this app will answer all of your questions about basically every-thing, and if it doesn’t, you can always check out their YouTube channel or television series.

photo provided

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12

kate mcpherson | entertainment

The Grumpycouch Potato

Not one of the chosen few with tick-ets to TEDxOU? Pull up some TED Talks online and get inspired anyway. These three talks are a great place to start.

All talks are available free on the TED website, and many can also be found on Netflix. See even more TED Talks to watch at OUDaily.com

“the danger of a single story”

— chimamanda ngozi adichieNovelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie argues that only having a sin-gle story of a place or person results in a closed mind and limited cultural experiences. This ought to be required viewing to live in this world.

“your elusive creative

genius” — elizabeth gilbert Elizabeth Gilbert, author of many

excellent books like “The Signature of All Things” and “Eat, Pray, Love,” talks about how each of us have a genius and how the pressure put on creative people negatively impacts their psyches. If you’re even remotely interested in writing, art or music, this is a must-watch.

“the paper town academy” — John Green

Young adult author John Green dis-cusses the importance of learning com-munities and why learning is important. If you’re already feeling burnt out this semester (I know I am), watch this to find inspiration to keep learning, even if it’s through non-traditional methods.

TED talks to watch and feed your brain:

see more online at oudaily.com