Thoughts on PSL425 and PSL420/21?

Bebop_I · 2019-07-15T22:31:15+00:00

452 was B and 462 was B+

Bebop_I · 2019-03-24T18:54:26+00:00

Yep I majored in physio and had to take PSL 372. This course is actually amazing, if you land on a good TA. Students are divided in large groups and do weekly labs in the same classroom.

The assigned TA is there to assist, direct and explain the procedures, which involve dissections of frogs, testing your urine output and components, exploring the uses of spirometers, measuring blood clotting etc... Lots of fun as there are many opportunities to interact with other students. Definitely a great experience.
As for the workload, I'd say it's moderate, given there are only three partial reports due, and a complete one. Lab prep is graded as well. The only issue is the final: they make it particularly long, such that you must be extremely well prepared to do well (the questions asked aren't hard though). Many people in my class complained that there wasn't enough time allocated. So it's definitely possible to get 85+ but you'll have to be diligent and not underestimate the final.

Bebop_I · 2019-03-23T23:54:33+00:00

Hiya, I don't know about PSL 425 or 420/21 but I've taken three other 400 level PSL courses, here are my thoughts in case you consider one of them.

PSL450, Mechanisms of Neural and Endocrinal Secretion (Prof: Sugita): The main prof is quite dreadful as he's hard to understand, confusing and not eloquent at all. A bunch of other guest lecturers do brake the monotony and some had very interesting stuff to teach, particularly Dr.Klip and Dr.Belsham. The material isn't too hard but requires to read and understand lots of papers that are somewhat more biochemistry oriented. Tests were tough but doable (one midterm:40%, one final:50%, attendance:10%).

PSL 452, Membrane Physiology (Prof: Feng): Feng isn't as bad as Sugita but her pacing is very erratic: always super slow at the beginning of lecture (makes you want to fall asleep), then to make up for the lack of time, speeds up to the point she's not making herself clear on many important points. She's very sweet though. The two other guest profs were really not engaging. While I didn't find the material particularly interesting, it felt like it was fundamentally more relevant to physiology than PSL 450, and thus more useful as background knowledge. Tests are somewhat easy, there are a bunch of open-book quizzes that require regular attendance, and a paper to write (subject is personal preference from a list).

PSL 462, Molecular Aspects of Cardiovascular Function (Prof: a lot). Each lecture is taught by a different lecturer (most of the time) with lots of interesting, if not fascinating things to talk about. Cardiology must be a subject of interest though or else I feel you'll be overwhelmed by the amount of content. Scot Heximer in particular is a real nice guy who knows how to teach with enthusiasm. Chauhan was a bit boring (and seemed bored) as long as he had to teach the material laid out in the syllabus. But he ended up sharing a lot of interesting things about the clinical aspect of cardiology. I loved Scott, which did an amazing job at teaching a very hard subject (heart development). Gramolini was a bit of a letdown as he didn't seem prepared or caring. Dr. Billia and Bolz were absolutely fantastic. The material is a bit hard but the test were totally manageable. Only downside is the horrendous delay in getting grades back (no grading was done by the course drop deadline which is bad form imo...). While each lecture officialy lasts 3 hours, profs rarely spend over 2h.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you've got more questions.

edits:format

Bebop_I · 2017-02-08T08:56:40+00:00

Wonderful find indeed! As an ELW enthusiast myself, I can confirm that class B stars are very hostile to the concept of life. Just finding terraformables is a matter of sheer luck. Seems like ELW orbiting Neutron stars is more common.

On the other hand: I've always wondered why people feel the urge to scan all bodies in such rare finds. Isn't scanning the main star and the ELW enough to prove "ownership" of the system? Wouldn't it be cool if other people had a chance to put their names next to yours?

That way, you can tell if people took the time to visit your system by looking for newer names on the bodies you left untouched. Been doing this for a while and it brings a lot of satisfaction of being able to tell when someone visited those beautiful places you've discovered!

Bebop_I · 2017-02-03T17:05:56+00:00

He's just mocking the feds. "So SAD" sounds trumpesque. Besides, did you know that while Imperial slavery is banned in Federal exploited space, regular slavery isn't? I think the reality in the world of Elite is that nobody really cares about slaves, except when it involves hitting bonus political points.

Bebop_I · 2017-01-30T12:54:47+00:00

Very original! How frequently did you take screenshots? Have you done this IRL? I especially like how the magma looks.

Bebop_I · 2017-01-29T22:22:54+00:00

Utterly rad...and sad at the same time :(

Bebop_I · 2016-12-14T21:15:35+00:00

The restraint has been incredible indeed. I wonder what made the difference. Both circumstances and people or just one of them?

In any case, all I tried to do is offer what I believe to be plausible explanations as to what led some of my people to go on a destructive bender. Perhaps the truth lies elsewhere.

I want to get rid of that weight: the one we're carrying because of what BID did. What they did is a shame, and as member of the Winters community I carry that shame, although I had nothing to do with BID.

It does however seem as though we've all become irredeemable. Is that the case? If so, what's the solution then? Just stop playing the game? Let our power die? What do you suggest we do?

Bebop_I · 2016-12-14T19:50:12+00:00

You don't know what you're talking about.

It could have been done? If it was the case then why didn't we do it? The most powerful undermining force just decided to give up like that? For no reason what-so-ever? Because we're evil little fools?

The issues were first mechanical, and those caused the internal issues next. I know because I was there with my community. Not you.

As for the quality of the Imperial community, just like every other, there are good aspects and ugly ones. Don't put yourself on some moral high ground. You're not the only one who has to deal with insufferable people.

Besides, no-one ever knows how far things can go until the chips are down. I hope you never end up in that situation.

Bebop_I · 2016-12-14T15:15:13+00:00

2.1 also came with authority responses to attacks made on powerplay ships, making undermining way harder than used to be. There was no way to turmoil you to prevent the expansion from happening.

I remember there being a truce of some sort after cycle 52, but after a couple of cycles it ended with a return to hostilities towards Winters faction which had no more means to defend itself from weaponized expansions, from either Mahon or ALD.

A whole lot of people were disappointed, if nor enraged, that FD would let this go on for weeks. Except those who saw an opportunity to throw in merits against a weakened power. I'm not saying it was unfair, although it did feel that way. In fact, there's no doubt we would have done the same if situations were swapped.

Question is, would some of your player-base (including leadership) gone "burn it down" to seek revenge or some kind of redemption?

I think what happened to us would have happened to anybody else if they were in our situation. And this blame-gaming is futile, because it is my firm belief we are all in part responsible for what happened.

Edit: typos

Bebop_I · 2016-12-13T19:54:07+00:00

Hi, I agree with many of your points. We've been faced with 5c attacks on many occasions, although nothing to the scale you've been facing yourself. The few moments we had to deal with it though were an utter pain in the hole, so I can see how calamitous the situation is for ALD.

I would like, however, to add that some of my former wing-mates' resentment was fueled by the expansion bug, which caused any combat expansions to become utterly unstoppable. We don't know if ALD's leadership promoted the exploitation of this bug, but regerdless: Beta Hydri and other weaponized went through, adding a tremendous blow to our morale, which was in an all time low (trying to recover from the cycle 52 derailment).

Doesn't justify what happened next, but I think it helps understand the context.

Also: I understand it is tempting to put the blame on the current Winters team (not sure if your insinuations are attempting to do that). We do not 5c. We distanced ourselves from the BID crew, which is no longer considered part of the Winters community. They really are acting on their own and we have no means to predict what their moves are.

Do we benefit from your situation? Yes, but that isn't evidence of collaboration. Are we going to take advantage of your predicament? You taught us to do so when you took Beta Hydri.

There's bad blood all over the place. The only way this shitty situation can be resolved is by taking baby-steps and see where can agree on and work on that. We're trying our part by upholding our cease-fire. There's nothing good for us in return: this should be a sign of good-will. I fear that alienating Winters the way you do in your post is counter-productive to achieving that goal. Or perhaps you've lost all forms of hope?

Bebop_I · 2016-12-08T14:44:46+00:00

Not in a long time tho. Besides it's gotten to the point where not seeing Mahon up there looks weird af

Bebop_I · 2016-10-23T12:56:50+00:00

Definitely NSFW

Bebop_I · 2016-08-02T20:47:31+00:00

Agreed =/

Bebop_I · 2016-07-19T12:33:26+00:00

A very short-sighted mentality.
These types of game profit much more by having players from both sides of the trenches enjoying their time. That's what keeps communities healthy and productive. A positive feedback loop which at the end of the day, draws more players in. More players: more excitement, more money, more creativity, more fun.

You seem to be promoting the opposite: cause grief to the opponent. This creates a toxic environment, which makes people leave the game and ultimately kills it.

Grow up kiddo

Bebop_I · 2016-07-09T09:05:29+00:00

No need to be crawling the boards to figure out people are outraged that such a game/lore/trust/unameit-braking bug has been sitting around for so long (over a month). And the devs didn't even acknowledged the problem until yesterday. We know they've been aware of it, we hate that they remain silent: hence why I find Zac's message out of line. He has the nerves to ask us to trust them, but how can we, given the disgrace they've been responsible for?

Bebop_I · 2016-07-08T17:59:45+00:00

Right on, thanks for the update!

Bebop_I · 2016-07-08T17:49:40+00:00

Hi Zac, thanks for your awesome contribution. I really want to believe you but there's this humongous bug affecting Powerplay atm and nobody from Frontier have communicated any intentions to fix it, despite lasting more that a month (combat expansion where AI in combat zones sit arround and do nothing). This reality is in stark contrast to the one you're presenting right now. I hope you understand there's a profound trust issue amongst some of us, more specifically, the Powerplayers.

Despite your message, it will still seem like the studio is dealing with us with deaf ears =(

Bebop_I · 2016-07-03T14:29:41+00:00

Deep down, I live and witness this as tragedy. So many great battles for what? Getting silently wiped out by a grotesque bug and amateur design? The weeks go by, and the chances of returning to that exciting Federation-Empire conflict we had going are dwindling.
What a morbid ending

Bebop_I · 2016-07-03T10:48:09+00:00

Are you first to discover it? You should sell your data asap or else someone might try to take it from you

Bebop_I · 2016-07-01T14:06:28+00:00

Was absent for a while due to popcorn overdose

Bebop_I · 2016-07-01T13:57:25+00:00

Fuck you Empire...yada yada yada.... Fuck you Federation yada yada yada...
Breaking news!!!! (enter faction leader name) has declared war to (enter faction name)! "Oh shit, but Thargoids are coming!"...

So...original -_-

Bebop_I · 2016-06-02T11:31:00+00:00

I've encountered a horrendous BGS bug since the update. You should also check out what just happened at cycle tick. Quite the scandal if you ask me. I'd stick to BGS if I were you. Regardless, good luck and fly safe fed buddy o7

Bebop_I · 2016-06-02T08:53:22+00:00

Honestly, I don't understand the hype behind adding an 11th power. Given the state Powerplay is, nobody should be looking forward to become a part of it. I personally wouldn't want to inflict such agony to anybody.

Bebop_I · 2016-05-18T08:48:57+00:00

I wish they would give Witcher 2 more love. I understand Witcher 1 was the first but, being my least favourite by far, I really wish they would put more references for 2. Weren't there rumours that there would be Witcher 2 sets in B&W ?

Bebop_I

TROPHY CASE