Category Archives: not homework

Extra Credit Opportunity: Jazz Ensembles

PSU Jazz Ensembles One and Two, Overman Student Center, Crimson & Gold Ballroom, You’ll hear music by Benny Carter, Thelonious Monk, Tom Kubis, Oliver Nelson and more. There will be standards like Straight No Chaser, spin offs like Which Craft?, and arrangements of traditional works like Andalusia, Down By the Riverside and America. Mon, October 3 2011 07:30 PM – 08:30 PM. Free.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Mad Scientists in Literature

The 18th Annual Victor J. Emmett Memorial Lecture is scheduled for September 29, at 8 pm, in 409 Russ Hall on the Pittsburg State University campus.

This year’s lecturer is Janice Law Trecker, mystery writer, painter, and recently retired lecturer in English at the University of Connecticut. Her lecture topic will be “How Mad Scientists Created Monsters and Saved the Soul,” and will deal with the popular novels Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and others. A brief award ceremony and reception will follow the lecture.

The Emmett Memorial Lecture is named in memory of the late Dr. Victor J. Emmett, Jr., who from 1967 to 1990 was a Professor of English at Pittsburg State University. During that time he also served as Interim Dean of Graduate Studies, Editor-in-Chief of “The Midwest Quarterly,” and Chair of the English Department. The Emmett Lecture is sponsored by the Emmett family, the PSU English Department, and “The Midwest Quarterly.”

Additional information about Ms. Trecker, particularly about the mystery novels and stories she writes and publishes, can be found at her web site, www.janicelaw.com.

Extra Credit Opportunity: So Percussion – Solo and Chamber Music Series

Since 1999, So Percussion has been creating music that explores all the extremes of emotion and musical possibility. It has not been an easy music to define. Called an   “experimental powerhouse” by The Village Voice, “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard  Magazine, and “brilliant” by The New York Times, the Brooklyn-based quartet’s  innovative work with today’s most exciting composers and their own original music has quickly helped them forge a unique and diverse career.
Although the drum is one of humanity’s most ancient instruments, Europe and America have only recently begun to explore its full potential, aided by explosions of influence and experimentation from around the world. In the 20th Century, musical innovators like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis brought these instruments out from behind the traditional orchestra and gave them new voice. So Percussion has performed this unusual and exciting music all over the United States and on international tours. With an audience comprised of “both kinds of blue hair… elderly matron here, arty punk there” (as The Boston Globe described it), So Percussion makes a rare and wonderful breed of music that both instantly compels and offers rewards for engaged listening. Edgy (at least in the sense that little other music sounds like this) and ancient (in that people have been hitting objects for eons), perhaps it doesn’t need to be defined after all.

McCray Hall, Fri, September 16 2011 07:30 PM – 09:00 PM. Free to Full-time PSU Students with ID.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Philosophy Lecture on Ethics of Organ Procurement

The PSU Philosophical Society would like to welcome all PSU students, faculty, staff and member of the community to our first talk of the 2011-2012 PSU Philosophical Society Annual Speaker Series.  Our first talk of this academic year is by Dr. Mark Price (Columbia College).  Dr. Price an Associate Professor of Philosophy and chair of the Humanities Department.  He specializes in bioethics.  His talk here at PSU is entitled, “Mandatory Cadaver Organ Procurement”.  It will be held on Monday, September 19, 2011 in Russ Hall 409 at 6:00 pm.
“Mandatory Cadaver Organ Procurement”
The scarcity of viable organs for life-saving transplants remains a matter of serious concern.  The United States and most other western countries rely upon an “opt in” policy whereby individuals must indicate that they are donors.  Even then, family members of the potential donor are carefully asked whether they would like to have their loved one’s organs harvested for donation.  Commonly, the answer is “no” and that veto is respected even though the deceased had previously indicated her desire to be a donor.
Policy changes of various sorts have been suggested in the recent dialogue from presumed consent with “opt out” opportunities to commodification to mandatory procurement.  Obviously, mandatory procurement would result in the largest gain in available organs.  At the same time, because it involves a limitation on posthumous autonomy, it is morally problematic.

 

Extra Credit Opportunity: Little Balkan Days

The annual celebration of the Pittsburg area’s Balkan heritage and culture is this weekend: You can find details at http://littlebalkans.com/. Historically related events include the folk life festival at the Miner’s Pavilion, the Train Rides, and the Historical Fashion Show; other extra credit opportunities include the Quilt Show, main stage performances. Sorry, but the petting zoo and carnival rides don’t count.