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VOL. 99, NO. 94© 2014 OU Publications BoardFREE — Additional copies 25¢

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INSIDE TODAYCampus......................2

Classi f ieds................4

L i fe&Ar ts... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Opinion.....................3

Spor ts........................6

L&A: Sooners gather to gaze at the cosmos Wednesdays, courtesy of OU Astronomy. (Page 5)

Opinion: Paperless tickets might be a good thing, but we would still like the option for paper ones. (Page 3)

W W W . O U D A I L Y . C O M 2 0 1 3 P A C E M A K E R F I N A L I S T

W E D N E S D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 5 , 2 0 14

Sports: With help from the Sooners, the Big 12 is making a case for being the best basketball conference this season. (Page 4)

2 0 1 3 P A C E M A K E R F I N A L I S T

W E D N E S D A Y , F E B R U A R Y 5 , 2 0 14

With help from the Sooners, the Big 12 is making a case for being the best basketball conference this

� e University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916

MONEY

$49.4 million cut from budget Cuts to state budget cause concern for future of universities in Okla. EMMA SULLIVAN, Campus Reporter

While Gov. Mary Fallin’s new state budget proposal in-cludes tax cuts for citizens, it deals a hefty blow to higher education in the state.

The new proposal would reduce Oklahoma’s top indi-vidual income tax rate by .25 percent but this also means a decrease in appropriations to a number of state agencies, according to the proposal.

For higher education in Oklahoma, this means a loss of $49.4 million in appropriations, the largest for any area of government, according to the proposal.

In fiscal year 2014, the state appropriations were $988,549,007. The proposal indicates an almost 5 percent decrease in funds, to $939,121,557, in fiscal year 2015.

These cuts would have a significant impact on all public universities, OU President David Boren said.

“Having to absorb roughly $12 million more in cuts and uncompensated fixed costs, it will make it more and more difficult to maintain the quality of the university without

impacting costs for students and their families,” Boren said in an email.

This budget has only been proposed, and it is still possible for changes to be made in the coming weeks.

“We will work very hard with the legislature to modify the proposal,” Boren said.

Boren said he hopes the available funds will increase after the State Board of Equalization meets Feb. 18. If the amount increases, Boren plans to work with Fallin and the legisla-ture to allocate those funds to higher education.

Emma Sullivan, emmanic23@gmail.com

TONY RAGLE/THE DAILY

Pre-occupational senior Morgan Mason hops over a puddle on the way to class Tuesday afternoon. Students all over campus made their way through slushy snow and chilly temperatures after receiving an email that classes were not cancelled for the day.

Disappointed students proceed with caution to regularly scheduled classes

MATT WOODS, Campus Reporter, @matopher

After Sunday’s snowfall, the chances of ice and snow remain minimal until Thursday or Friday, dashing some students’ hopes of a break from class.

Forecasts indicate very cold air and up to an inch of pos-sible snowfall on Thursday with some trace accumulation predicted for Friday, said John Pike, National Weather Service employee.

“Thursday and Friday are going to be the times roads get kind of slick,” Pike said.

Toward the week’s end, forecasts predict frigid nights ahead with temperatures dipping into the single digits and only warming to highs around freezing by Saturday, Pike said.

Although OU’s Norman campus delayed opening until 10:30 a.m. Monday morning because of icy weather, stu-dents resumed classes on Tuesday without incident, trudg-ing across the South Oval while braving near-freezing

NEW IDEAS

Students seek reform at OU‘Serious’ game serves as education tool

TECHNOLOGY

CALEB SMUTZER/THE DAILY

Dean Gregg Garn discusses a text with his and Dean David Ray’s reading group Tuesday evening. This reading group is the third group that Garn and Ray have run together, and these groups are part of what inspired the Education Innovation Society.

SHAIDA TABRIZI, Campus Reporter, @ShaidaBee

Serious video games may seem like an oxymoron, but for OU’s Norah Dunbar they’re anything but contradictory.

Dunbar, a professor in the department of communica-tions, has spent the last few years working with a team to develop the “serious” games “MACBETH” and “MACBETH 2,” which have nothing to do with a murderous king in Scotland.

MACBETH, which stands for Mitigating Analyst Cognitive Bias by Eliminating Task Heuristics, was de-signed as a training tool that reduces cognitive biases in the player, Dunbar said.

The game tests for confirmation bias, fundamental at-tribution error, bias blind spot, anchoring bias, projection bias and representativeness bias, she said.

The game has been successful not only in effectively teaching the player a lesson, but also in making sure the lesson is remembered, she said.

Because of its educational nature, MACBETH is cate-gorized as a serious game vs. an entertainment game, like Grand Theft Auto. Think of it as a really fun sort of home-work, Dunbar said.

AMBER FRIENDCampus Reporter@amberthefriend

Tuesday afternoons, Gregg Garn, dean of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education and David Ray, dean of the Honors College, hold a unique reading group.

U n l i k e m o s t o f t h e Honors College informal reading groups, this group is headed by two univer-sity deans and gathers a mix of students from the College of Education and Honors Colleges to study books that delve into the center of educational systems.

Intrigued by the con-versations arising in these groups, the two deans collaborated to create the Educational Innovation

Society, or EIS, a more se-lective group dedicated to exploring ideas to improve education.

In spring 2013, while Ray and Garn were searching for a way to expand the in-tellectual discussions about education prompted in their reading groups, David Postic, first year law graduate stu-dent, offered them a propo-sition along similar lines: a student-based think tank for education reform.

“The idea behind it is that once we, as students, go out into the world, education will affect us all in some way … and a major university needs to be teaching everyone about education and about all the side effects of educa-tion,” Postic said.

Thinking the idea would resonate well with the edu-cation and honors students they were searching for, the

Students discuss change of policies OU communications instructor

develops games that teach lessons

SEE SNOW PAGE 2

SEE TECHNOLOGY PAGE 2 SEE NEW IDEAS PAGE 2

Sooners endure freezing weather

SNOW

“... it will make it more and more difficult to maintain the quality of the university

without impacting costs for students and their families.”

OU PRESIDENT DAVID BOREN

Lovelines are back!

The Oklahoma Daily is a product of OU Student Media. OU Student Media is a department within OU’s division of Student Affairs. The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution.

Send a message to your sweetheart (or friend)

Email your FREE message(s) by midnight, February 7, to

yourlovelines@gmail.com

See them inside The Oklahoma Daily on February 12!

JourneyWhere will your

take you?

studyabroad.ou.eduSee the world...

...stay a Sooner!

Journey programs are summer programs.

Each Journey program includes two 3-credit courses for a total of 6-credit hours.

All Journey programs are conducted in English.

In 2014, every student selected to participate in a Journey program will receive between $1,500 and $2,000 in guaranteed scholarship assistance to help defray

the cost of international travel.

2014 OU Journey ProgramsAfrica: Tanzania

ChinaLatin America: Peru

ItalyTurkey

Apply online now!Questions? Contact Nicole Bisby

nicolebisby@ou.edu

Paighten Harkins, campus editor Alex Niblett, assistant editor

dailynews@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666oudaily.com • Twitter: @OUDaily

2 • Wednesday, February 5, 2014

CAmPusTechnology: Game reduces confirmation bias in players by 21 percentContinued from page 1

The game has been suc-cessful competitively as well. It won the 2013 Best Serious Game in the busi-ness category as well as the 2013 Best Game Special Emphasis Adaptive Force Award, judged by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a t t h e S e r i o u s G a m e s Showcase and Challenge out of over 50 submitted se-rious games by commercial businesses, Dunbar said.

The game has also helped change biases about biases. There were some who told Dunbar her game wouldn’t work because biases are a part of human nature and therefore impossible to undo.

MACBETH proved them wrong, reducing confirma-tion bias alone by 21 per-cent, Dunbar said.

Her team has published two papers already and was just accepted for a pre-sentation at the Persuasive Technology Conference in Italy, Dunbar said.

T h e f i r s t i t e ra t i o n o f MACBETH was funded by

a $10.7 million grant from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity with the goal of mitigating biases in intelligence an-alysts, according to Daily archives.

The team began work on the second version of MACBETH on another con-tract with the agency. But funding for that project was cut as a part of federal bud-get sequestration, Dunbar said.

By the time those cuts were made, the team was about 90 percent done with the project, Dunbar said.

Developers completed the project with funding from the OU office of the Vice President for Research as part of their Defense, Security and Intelligence, or DSI, Research Program.

Though words like “de-fense” and “security” might seem to suggest a narrow field of research in the fields of science and engineer-ing to a covert group of re-searchers with high security clearances, DSI includes a broad range of projects from energy generation to human behavior, according to the

office’s website.Robert Palmer, associate

vice president for research, commented on the vari-ety within fields of research at OU, including Dunbar’s

Caleb Smutzer/the Daily

Norah Dunbar, communications professor, poses for a photo at her desk Tuesday afternoon in the Two Partner’s Place. Dunbar recently finished work on her video game, Macbeth, with funding from the U.S. Military.

deans used the idea to found the Educational Innovation Society.

The society is made up of 12 selected student fel-lows from either the College of Education or the Honors College, all of which received a $500 scholarship from the selection committee, accord-ing to the organization’s flier.

Ray and Garn are also highly involved. The society is focused on discussing ed-ucational reform primarily at OU.

“[We wanted to] get stu-dents in the College of Education and the Honors College together to get a real-ly rich mix of ideas about how we can make education bet-ter,” Garn said.

The society collected ap-plications until mid-Sep-tember. Along with a teacher recommendation letter and general information, the ap-plication asked students to explain what educational as-pects they wanted to change at the university and discuss during meetings, said Wes Herron, petroleum engi-neering junior and society member.

Herron wanted to modify the university’s math pro-grams to incorporate more relevant ideas that would carry on to later classes.

T h e s o c i e t y m e e t s a t 10:00 a.m the first Friday of each month in Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Heritage Room to have brunch and

temperatures and wind chills.“I was hoping for a call [to cancel classes], but it didn’t

happen,” University College freshman Rachel Newsom said.

Marked by wind outdoors and slushy halls indoors, Newsom described her freezing walk from Couch Center to class in Nielsen Hall as miserable. After a weekend relaxing in bed, Newsom was disappointed when she learned class wasn’t canceled Tuesday morning.

“I’m hoping we’ll get a snow day — at least one,” Newsom said.

Despite grumbling from many students grappling with the shiver-inducing elements, Tripp Lopez, entrepre-neurship and film production senior, said he wasn’t espe-cially disappointed by Tuesday’s normal class schedule since he could attend two of his favorite classes.

“I was kind of anticipating [the weather]. It’s really not that bad. I don’t mind,” Lopez said.

Lopez took advantage of the weekend snowfall to jump into a snowball fight with academic leadership organi-zation Loveworks, playing with middle-schoolers and getting pelted by snowballs in the name of community bonding.

“I was glad I had classes today, but at the same time, I love snow,” Lopez said.

Matt Woods, matt.woods@ou.edu

MACBETH.“She’s doing some really

interesting things along the lines of DSI, especially on the intelligence side,” said Palmer.

Losing government fund-ing has one benefit : the rights to market the game in fields other than intelli-gence, Dunbar said.

Kelvin Droegemeier, vice

president for research, said the office of the vice pres-ident for research is now looking for more ways to support Dunbar’s work.

Since MACBETH did so well in reducing confirma-tion bias, Dunbar thinks the training would help doctors avoid biases that overlook symptoms that don’t fit into a patient’s existing diagno-sis. It would just take a small tweak in the game script, perhaps putting the player in an epidemic instead of espionage scenario.

T h e b i a s t r a i n i n g i n MACBETH is also related to Dunbar’s work in develop-ing training for deception detection. Its focus is teach-ing people to use correct cues instead of relying on bi-ases or myths, Dunbar said.

People in fields like law enforcement, intelligence and the military are hungry for proper training, Dunbar said. Teaching it in a game gives you a lot of cool things you can’t do in a workshop or an instructional video.

Shaida Tabrizi shaida.monroe@gmail.com

snow: OU maintains regular precedure on bleak, slushy TuesdayContinued from page 1

new ideas: Selective commitee makes changeContinued from page 1 discuss ideas, according to

the flier.After brunch, students

present their topics of in-terest and the group begins, Herron said.

At the most recent meet-ing, the discussion was so en-gaging that the group actual-ly stayed an hour past their scheduled time, Garn and Ray said.

So far, the Educational

Innovation Society has dis-cussed topics such as psy-chology research, sexual ha-rassment and technology on campus, Herron said.

Garn said his two main goals for the group are col-laboration between differ-ent kinds of people who care about education and em-powering students to realize they can improve the educa-tion system.

Ray’s goal is similar: to get motivated students to inspire unmotivated students to im-pact the education system.

“ W e ’ v e g o t a l o t o f hard-working kids, and I think their example may be the thing that lights the fuse,” he said.

Amber Friend ambermfriend@ou.edu

business, sometimes it hurts, and they take a hit to give, but they do it.”

Despite challenges, the roastery raised enough cash to complete the Rwandan well by Sept. 2013. When TEDxOU rolled around last month, Amyie Kao took center stage to spread awareness about the world water cri-sis and, hopefully, plant seeds for tomorrow’s powerful ideas.

“I think the more you talk about [social jus-tice issues] — somebody out there is going to do something huge,” Amyie Kao said. “There’s only so much we can do. Maybe some student has a world-changing idea that’s waiting to be brought into the light.”

Community coffee shops act as incubators for great ideas and often as platforms for in-dependent art and havens for big-thinking conversations, Garbe said.

OTHER SHOPS GIVE BACK

When he isn’t in school or roasting at Mariposa, Garbe serves as a barista in a Norman coffeehouse, Gray Owl at 223 E. Gray St., where local artists display their work in a fundamentally different venue from the pro-fessional galleries across the block.

In Garbe’s two years behind the count-er, he’s witnessed many students come in marked by a curiosity and passion to change the world.

Editorial

Paperless is the golden ticketOur View: The Oklahoma Board of Regents has approved a plan to look into paperless tickets for sporting events, and we think that’s great as long as we still have the option of printing or picking up our paper tickets.

When it comes to receiving and using tickets at sporting events, OU students have it pretty easy. We have a print-at-home option for all men’s bas-ketball games and all football games, other than the Red River Rivalry and bowl games. Unlike other universities (we’re looking at you, Texas A&M), you will never see lines of OU fans camping outside the stadium to pick up their tickets.

So when we saw that the Oklahoma Board of Regents ap-proved a plan to explore a paper-less ticket option at OU, we were a bit surprised. Sure, it would be neat to be able to whip out our smartphones to be scanned at the stadium or arena instead of carry-ing around pieces of paper, but it

shouldn’t become the only way to obtain tickets.Sooners have already proved it doesn’t have to

be that difficult to distribute student tickets for sporting events. As such, we believe there is no reason not to offer yet another convenient option to OU fans — as long as we can still pick up our pretty hard copies when we want.

Some devoted fans make a point of picking up hard copies of every single football ticket, mak-ing elaborate scrapbooks or wall decorations out of those little rectangles of paper. We wouldn’t want to take away that opportunity from our crafty Sooners.

We all know what happens when you try to mess too much with Oklahoma tradition — just look at the apocalyptic reactions to the new, gold-trimmed uniforms our football players wore in last season’s Red River Rivalry game.

Chris James/The Daily

The Sooner offense lines up against the Longhorns on Oct. 12 when Texas hosted the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Oklahoma Board of Regents recently approved a plan to explore a paperless ticket option for sporting events at OU.

However, if paperless ticketing became our only option, it would be quite difficult to resell student tickets. Under our current system, it is wonder-fully easy to sell student football tickets to others, including non-students. We would be disappoint-ed if paperless tickets mean that we can no longer sell tickets to our non-OU friends to show them what a real football school looks like.

That being said, paperless tickets would be an environmentally responsible option for the more tech-savvy OU fans among us. Although our die-hard Sooner grandmas might not take advantage of a paperless ticket option, we sure would appre-ciate not having to deal with the hassle of printing out tickets before the games.

Not only would paperless tickets save us on printing costs, but it would also be a logical tech-nological step for OU. Our university prides itself on its abundance of technology, including multi-ple Apple Distinguished Program Awards. We all know that our phones are basically attached to our bodies, so we’re a lot less likely to forget our sacred iPhones than a nondescript piece of paper.

We support paperless ticketing as long as it is just another option and not the only way to obtain passage to OU sporting events.

Comment on this at oUdaily.com

The Our View is the majority opinion of The Daily’s eight-member editorial board

CampusWednesday, February 5, 2014 • 3

paighten Harkins, campus editoralex Niblett, assistant editor

dailyent@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666oudaily.com/life&arts • Twitter: @OUDailyArts

PhilanthroPy

local coffee shops for global change

Chris miChie/The Daily

Second Wind offers students and other patrons a place to study, converse and relax. Second Wind is a not for profit coffee house located on campus corner.

See more onlineVisit OUDaily.com for the full story

oudaily.com/news

Matt Woods • Campus Reporter

From the beginning, activism and arti-san coffee went hand-in-hand for Mariposa Coffee Roastery. Since 2009, the coffee shop has turned loving coffee into loving others, donating proceeds from their fledgling cof-fee venture to several causes, including Haiti earthquake relief and anti-human trafficking initiatives.

Then in 2012, as Amyie Kao watched her husband, Daniel Kao, tinker underneath their kitchen sink to finely tune their brew-ing water, a stray question percolated in her mind, irreversibly changing the coming months for Mariposa: Do coffee growers have access to clean water too?

The married roastery co-founders as-sumed that coffee plantation laborers in Africa, who consistently win awards for the beans they harvest, have access to drinkable water. But what if they didn’t?

Driven by social justice and a growing re-alization of the world water crisis, the Kaos shifted their business’ eager philanthropic strategy toward relationship-focused part-nerships to transform communities. Today, Mariposa seeks to connect Norman locals to important issues through passion-infused coffee and give life to world-changing ideas by starting conversations.

“We don’t have all the answers,” Amyie Kao said. “We have a strong conviction about water.”

To answer her nagging, sink-side ques-tion, Amyie Kao started digging into research about the world water crisis and found an

overlap between maps of economic water scarcity and coffee growing regions. She reached out to Water4, a clean water organi-zation in Oklahoma City, to find answers.

Water4 relayed the disappointing situa-tion of a community in the Nyaruguru dis-trict of Rwanda, known for receiving the Cup of Excellence award that has been described by Amyie Kao as “the Olympics of coffee.” Not only did coffee laborers there, who pick miles of coffee for a half-dollar, lack access to drinkable water, but those same workers also might not survive until their hand-picked, artisan beans are brewed in the U.S., Amyie Kao said.

In light of the stark reality faced by wa-ter-deprived villages, the Kaos felt com-postable to-go cups and tinkering under the sink didn’t seem to do enough to genuinely value the sweating, dying Rwandans picking coffee over 8,000 miles away.

Partnering with Water4, Mariposa’s new mission was to construct a high-altitude well for three water-deprived villages in Nyaruguru. But for a mom-and-pop craft cof-fee business, roasting beans with a makeshift setup assembled from a barbecue grill and a rotisserie kit and using YouTube directions only a few dozen months before, the well’s $3,500 price tag posed no small barrier.

After roasting with Mariposa for a year, an-thropology senior Connor Garbe can testify to the Kao’s commitment to the well project and their own mission statement: giving back to communities.

“It’s cool too, because they’re so small,” Garbe said. “Because it’s a small, local

Norman coffee shops make sacrifices to make life better for all citizens of the world

Kaitlyn underwood, opinion editorRachael montgomery, assistant editor

dailyopinion@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666oudaily.com/opinion • Twitter: @OUDailyOpinionOpINION

The Oklahoma Daily is a public forum, the University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice and an entirely student-run publication.

letters should concentrate on issues, not personalities, and must be fewer than 250 words, typed and signed by the author(s). Letters will be edited for accuracy, space and style. Students must list their major and classification. To submit letters, email dailyopinion@ou.edu.

our View is the voice of the Editorial Board, which consists of eight student editors. The board meets at 5 p.m. Sunday to Thursday in 160 Copeland Hall. Board meetings are open to the public.

Guest columns are accepted and printed at the editor’s discretion.

Columnists’ and cartoonists’ opinions are their own and not necessarily the views or opinions of The Oklahoma Daily Editorial Board.

to advertise in The Oklahoma Daily, contact advertising manager Kearsten Howland by calling 405-325-8964 or emailing dailyads@ou.edu.

one free copy of The Daily is available to members of the OU community. Additional copies may be purchased for 25 cents by contacting The Daily business office at 405-325-2522.

Kyle Margerum Editor in ChiefBlayklee Buchanan Managing EditorPaighten Harkins Campus EditorArianna Pickard Continuous news EditorKaitlyn Underwood opinion Editor

Tony Beaulieu life & arts EditorJulia Nelson Sports EditorTaylor Bolton Visual EditorKearsten Howland advertising ManagerJudy Gibbs Robinson Faculty adviser

contact us 160 Copeland Hall, 860 Van Vleet OvalNorman, OK 73019-2052

phone:405-325-3666

email:dailynews@ou.edu

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DEADLINES

HOROSCOPE By Bernice Bede Osol

Copyright 2012, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Push a little harder and prepare to excel in the coming year. Interacting with others will help open windows of opportunity, allowing you to get the results you seek. To ensure your success, pick up new skills or information that will keep you ahead of the pack.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- You should involve yourself in physical activities that will help you get into shape. You will also fi nd time to catch up on overdue correspondence.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) -- Improve your surroundings. Invest in items that will add to your comfort. Use your skills to gain respect and recognition. Invest in yourself in order to excel.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- You can outtalk and outsmart anyone who challenges you. Present your ideas and concerns before you agree to take on a job or responsibility. Get whatever agreement you make in writing.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Your best efforts will be appreciated and lead to greater opportunity. Follow the direction that is best suited to your talents and skills. Keep your private affairs to yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Rise to the occasion. Put your energy to good use. Take the extra step if it will help you fi nish what you start. Your versatility and quick action will attract an interesting someone.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- Confusion or uncertainty must not be what stands between you and a decision

that can alter your future. Evaluate your position and make a move. Avoid excessive individuals.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Get ready for action and take on responsibility. Your leadership ability may be challenged, but in the end you will come out on top. Show enthusiasm if you want to attract attention.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Deal with personal business that has the potential to infl uence your fi nancial future. An older friend or relative is likely to challenge one of your decisions. Patience will be required.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) -- Travel for business or pleasure will lead to information and the ability to make a good decision. Don’t share the information that you discover until you feel you are in a strong position.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- Do whatever it takes to secure money matters and pending legal affairs. Lending or borrowing will lead to trust issues. Listen carefully to what’s being offered and respond accordingly.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) -- Mix business with pleasure, network, share ideas and -- most of all -- build good relationships. An adventure or business trip will grab your attention and offer new possibilities. Jump into action.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Get down to business and smooth out any wrinkles in a presentation you want to make. Attention to detail will make the difference between success and failure. Avoid joint ventures.

Instructions:Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. That means that no number is repeated in any row, column or box.

Previous Solution

Monday- Very EasyTuesday-EasyWednesday- EasyThursday- MediumFriday - Hard

ACROSS 1 Syllables

sung while skipping

6 Like the dry season

10 Tailor’s meeting place?

14 Hulk of pro wrestling

15 Comedian Carvey

16 One-time Canadian major leaguer

17 Any obsolete item

20 Wax-winged flier of myth

21 Against the rules

22 Address for a gentle-woman

25 Ernest, in “From Here to Eternity”

26 Road Runner’s remark

30 Aid a felon 32 Bug 35 Feeling

of hatred 41 It may be

opened at a party

43 Surpassed 44 Make more

efficient 45 Word with

“heaven” 47 Winter

hazard 48 Book with

legends 53 Upper-story

room 56 “Born Free”

beast

58 Portion of a mountain range

63 Hit film of 1985

66 Russian range or river

67 Reference books?

68 Hindu attire 69 Man or boy 70 It may

lead to a conclusion

71 Cast off from the body

DOWN 1 Bangkok

citizen 2 Campus mil.

grp. 3 Turkish

honorific 4 Secluded

habitat 5 Per ___

(yearly) 6 Fuss 7 U.K. mil.

branch 8 By deadline 9 Willie

Wonka’s creator

10 Art photo shade

11 Right on the money

12 Orbital extreme

13 It may be below a crest

18 Org. founded by Juliette Gordon Low

19 Diminutive seasonal helper

23 Statistics and such

24 Inactive 26 Type

of lettuce 27 A great lake 28 Flubs 29 Brad

of Hollywood 31 Like a

Granny Smith apple

33 “La,” at La Scala

34 Tallies 36 Prefix with

“classic” or “natal”

37 Stoic and alcohol endings

38 Certainly not nice

39 “Render therefore ___ Caesar ...”

40 Hobo concoction

42 Golf stroke 46 Resurrection

Day

48 Set of records

49 Princess’s crown

50 Like some anesthesia

51 Foot-leg connector

52 Two of a kind

54 World currency org.

55 Partner of effect

57 Achy from a workout

59 For men only

60 Casual affirmative

61 Cornea and lens neighbor

62 Ending with “slug” or “song”

64 Witch 65 Tokyo,

in the past

Universal CrosswordEdited by Timothy E. Parker February 5, 2014

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

© 2014 Universal Uclickwww.upuzzles.com

A TENSE SITUATION By Rob Lee2/5

2/4

The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. ou.edu/eooThe University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. ou.edu/eoo

(405) 325-4101

UNIVERSITY THEATREWEITZENHOFFER SCHOOL OF MUSICAL THEATRE

8 pm Feb. 14-15, 20-223 pm Feb. 16, 23

Rupel J. Jones �eatre, Rated G

An award-winning musical comedyfull of every cliché, gag and gimmickfrom musicals of the 1920s jazz-age.

An award-winning musical comedyfull of every cliché, gag and gimmickfrom musicals of the 1920s jazz-age.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC ACCESS During the

Regular Meeting Of

The University of OklahomaPUBLICATIONS BOARD

9:30 a.m. Friday Copeland Hall, Room 146

Students, staff, faculty and others in the community are invited to express their views concerning

The Oklahoma Daily or Sooner yearbook to the Publications Board.

Julia Nelson, sports editorJoe Mussatto, assistant editor

dailysports@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666oudaily.com/sports • Twitter: @OUDailySportsSPORTS

4 • Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Column

OU helps make Big 12 nation best

Big 12 play is half-way over for the Sooners, and a few

upsets have made the con-ference one of the toughest in the nation.

Oklahoma was projected to finish fifth in the league, tied with Kansas State and behind Kansas, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Iowa State. But through nine games, OU sits in third, be-hind Kansas and Texas.

The Sooners and Longhorns have helped make the Big 12 one of the most competitive leagues, challenging the Big Ten and ACC for basketball supremacy.

Entering conference play, it was clear that the Big 12 would be a hard league for any team to get out of unbeaten, even for favorites Kansas and Oklahoma State. In out-of-conference play, Big 12 teams are 102-26, the best in college basketball.

But the league’s depth has been on display since Big 12 play began in early January. Teams projected to finish lower in the stand-ings have catapulted them-selves to the top, with unex-pected wins against favored opponents.

OU was able to pick up wins against Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma State. All teams project-ed to finish ahead of the Sooners. Texas has done some work of its own, win-ning its last six conference games — including wins against Kansas, Iowa State and Baylor — after losing its first two.

Even West Virginia, pro-jected to finish seventh, has

Tony Ragle/The Daily

Forward sophomore Ryan Spangler scores in last month’s game against OSU. The men’s basketball team is scheduled to play West Virginia tonight.

won some key games and now sits in fifth.

Outside of Kansas, the Big 12 has given way to Texas and Oklahoma. Baylor is the only team this season to have truly fallen off the wagon. Both Iowa State and Kansas State are just a game behind OU in the standings, and OSU has time to make a late run.

The Sooners have put themselves in good posi-tion heading into the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments, but with the conference as strong as it is, OU can’t coast into the postseason.

While some of the early favorites have struggled — they still have the skill to win on any given night — as shown by Iowa State in its rematch win over the Sooners in Ames on Saturday. OU still has home matchups against Kansas State and Baylor that will be crucial in the final standings, despite those teams not having as much success.

Oklahoma could po-tentially win the confer-ence by winning out, but it still has two tough road games against wild crowds at Kansas and Oklahoma State, as well as a home matchup against the scorching Longhorns.

But in this conference, no win is guaranteed. ESPN Bracketology has six Big 12 teams making the

NCAA tournament. By the end of the month, the Sooners could find themselves back near their projected standing. But for now, they’ve put themselves in position to compete with the na-tion’s best.

Ryan Gerbosi is a journalism senior.

Ryan Gerbosirgerbosi@ou.edu

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Sarah PittSL&A Reporter @s_spitts

Every Wednesday night, students climb the black exterior staircase of the ob-servatory building towards a white dome and careful-ly positioned telescopes to gaze at stars, planets and galaxies with guidance from enthusiastic OU Star Party hosts.

On Jan. 29, the OU Star Party witnessed the recent supernova and many stu-dents attended to witness the explosion. The only way students can get to the roof of the observatory building is to climb the staircase on the west side of the observa-tory building, which is visi-ble from Asp.

“When you look through a telescope, you see those things with your own eyes,” said OU Star Party host and graduate student Jeremy Lusk. “Photons of light from a distant star travel across billions of miles of empty space, filter down through the atmosphere of Earth, bounce around a few mir-rors in the telescope and end their journey at the back of your eyeball.” Lusk is currently a graduate stu-dent in the physics and as-tronomy department.

On the week of Jan. 22, a white dwarf star explod-ed in the M82 galaxy about 12 million light years away, which is fairly close in cos-mic terms according to Lusk. The white dwarf ex-plosion is unique because the star exploded due to pushing beyond its mass limit.

“Pack on enough mass and boom — the entire white dwarf explodes, out-shining the billions of stars that make up its host gal-axy,” said Lusk.

The explosion will be vis-ible for two to three weeks, said physics and astrono-my graduate student Malia Jenks. However, the week of Jan. 29 was the only time the OU telescope would be able to capture the supernova.

A typical night at the OU Star Party could include ob-serving planets, binary stars and galaxies.

“We try to aim our tele-scopes at the most impres-sive objects visible — clus-ters of stars so dense it looks like someone spilled salt on the night sky, giant planets like Jupiter and their at-tendant moons, immense clouds of dust and gas like the Orion nebula, and faint, distant galaxies like M82 and Andromeda,” Lusk said.

Some classes even offer extra credit for attend-ing the OU Star Party, said Grant Martin, sophomore accounting major. Martin attended the star party to get extra credit for his life and the universe class.

How e v e r, a f t e r at t e n d -ing the star party he said he would want to go back again.

“Every Wednesday, you get the chance to observe something different, and often times, you might find that you want to go just be-cause what’s on the sched-ule at the obser vator y’s website has a cool name, and you’re curious to see what it might look like, so

I went to the TEDxOU event last Friday, Jan. 31 in Meacham

auditorium, and for the most part, it was every-thing it’s chalked up to be. From the moment you receive your nametag to the moment the hand-some barista pours you a delicious cup of (FREE!) Mariposa coffee, you know you’re going to have a pleasant time.

The event is divid-ed up into four different sections with four speak-ers in each section, and although I was only able to stay until after lunch and listen to eight speakers, I still feel that I received the full effect of the program.

There were three spe-cific talks that stood out to me. I have to preface this and say that all of the talks were incredible— these three just really drove the nail home:

1. Philip Dow: Dow was the first talk of the event and needless to say, his lecture assured me that I was making the right move to be sitting in Meachum instead of in class that Friday. His talk covered life and discussed how humans are not all that different from the binary code used in computing. He gave just the right amount of philosophy with enough humor to keep you smiling.

This talk is for: Computer science

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UNIVERSITY THEATREHELMERICH SCHOOL OF DRAMA

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LIFE&ARTSWednesday, February 5, 2014 • 5

Tony Beaulieu, life & arts editorLuke Reynolds, assistant editor

dailyent@ou.edu • phone: 405-325-3666oudaily.com/life&arts • Twitter: @OUDailyArts

Astronomy

star Parties bring cosmos to students

Talks inspire thought at OUtedxoU

Luke Reynoldsreynolds.luke5@gmail.com

AssistAnt L&A EditoR

When you look through a

telescope, you see those things with your own eyes.”

JEREmy Lusk, gRAduAtE studEnt

‘‘

majors, people with a good sense of humor.

This talk is not for: Frat stars.

2. Mathew Burch: This was my second favorite talk for many reasons. Burch started Urban Agrarian, a local food retailer and distrib-utor that is focused on envi-ronmental sustainability and putting good things into your body instead of processed foods. Burch is ambitious and passionate and gave a very interesting speech high-lighting details of local food distribution while making it relatable to everyone.

T h i s t a l k i s f o r : Environmental sustainability majors, people with gardens.

This talk is not for: People who own slaughterhouses.

3. David Ray: Anyone who has heard honors Dean

Sarah PittS/the Daily

A student adjusts a small telescope on the roof of the ou observatory Wednesday, Jan. 29.

each and every time will be a different experience,” Martin said.

T h e m e e t i n g t i m e s chang e throughout the year and there may be can-cellations due to weath-e r, b u t a l l i n f o r m a t i o n can be found on the club website at obser vator y.ou.edu/Welcome.html or by following their Twitter @OUStarParty, Lusk said.

“There are lots of indi-viduals who have never looked through a telescope before — who have never seen some of the awe-in-spiring things that are hang-ing above our heads every night,” Lusk said. “Getting to show people those won-drous sights and hearing their reactions is extremely gratifying.”

Sarah Pitts s.elizabethpitts@ou.edu

David Ray speak will not be surprised in the least that his talk was by far the most in-teresting and relatable of all the talks I saw. His straight-forward, no bullshit attitude towards life and education especially was refreshing and hilarious. He made no attempt to hide his worry about America’s current ed-ucation system, yet was by far the most eloquent of the speakers. I think Ray’s talk is most easily summed up by this quote, “Everyone in the nation must work harder, stu-dents must work harder, read more.”

This talk is for: Anyone at-tending a university or con-cerned about education.

T h i s t a l k i s n o t f o r : Nihilists.

Luke Reynolds is a University College freshman.

Sooners gather to gaze at stars

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students Josiah irvin, Emily Warner, taylor gronlund and Annie delsignore discuss their reactions to the presentations of tEdxou’s session one talks.

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All undergraduate, graduate and professional students aswell as full-time faculty and staff members on OU’s Norman,Oklahoma City and Tulsa campuses are eligible to benominated for the $20,000 Otis Sullivant Award. Onlymembers of the OU community are eligible to be consideredfor the prize.

The award is funded by a $500,000 endowment established byEdith Kinney Gaylord of Oklahoma City shortly before her death in2001. It is named in honor of the late Otis Sullivant, the chiefpolitical writer for the Daily Oklahoman who for 40 years was one of the state’s most influential journalists.

Nominees should exhibit intuitiveness, instant comprehension andempathy, be observant and interpret from their experience. Thebenefit to society and the broader community, which comes fromthe nominee’s insight, also will be considered.

- THE PRIDE OF OKLAHOMA

Nominees for the Sullivant Award may be made by calling Sherry Evans at the President’s Office at 325-3916, writing to her at the Office of the President, 660 Parrington Oval, Room 110, Norman, OK 73019-3073, or by picking up forms at the President’s Office. Applications must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14.

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