Author Archives: Isaiah Brilhante

Science vs Religion

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Café event with guest speaker Gregory Sloan. Sloan talked about the relationship between religion and science and how it has influenced key events throughout history. In particular, Sloan discussed the incident between Galileo and the Catholic church. The Catholic church denounced many of Galileo’s astrological findings and even put him under house arrest. Sloan stated that while it may be easy to put the all the blame on religion for the church trying to stifle Galileo’s ideas, there are other underlying factors that led the church to do what they did.
I found this talk to be very interesting. I always hear about how religion and science have always been fighting each other throughout history but Sloan says that this is not always the case. In the case of Galileo, Sloan suggests that the Catholic Church’s concern about their power was also a factor in their decision to stifle Galileo. I think that Sloan was just trying to get us to always look at problems in history from other views, as everything may not always be as black and white as they seem, especially when religion and science are involved. It is nice to know that I am not the only one who believes that science and religion can exist together.

Self Defense

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Last week Friday, I attended the Rose Scholars Self Defense Workshop taught by Kathleen Garrity. Prior to the event, I had no idea what to expect. I had never taken a self defense class before and had no knowledge of self defense. Obviously I have seen fighting in movies and TV but I know that those stunts scenes are highly dramatized and nothing like fighting in real life. However, since I have never been in a fight before, fight scenes from movies and TV were the only experiences I had.

At the event, we were taught some basic strikes and self defense moves. All of the strikes and moves we learned always ended with a push or back step in order to create space between you and your attacker. It was amazing how you can incorporate a push after almost every strike and I think this highlights the main goal of self defense. Your goal is not to win the fight but rather to try and discourage an attacker and try to get away. I also learned that shouting when striking is very important for power. I always thought that when people are shouting when they are fighting in TV and movies, that it is mainly done for drama. However, after watching some people break boards at the workshop just by shouting while striking, it was clear to me that the shouts have a serious impact on the power of the strike.

Overall, I really enjoyed this workshop. I mainly attend the Rose Cafe events because of my schedule so this workshop was a nice change of pace. It was fun to not only attended a more hands on, physically active event, but it was also nice to learn a very important skill. In no way am I proficient in self defense after attending the workshop but I do know what my goals are if I am ever in a bad situation which will help me to not panic.

An Inside Look at West Campus Dining

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Café event with guest speakers Chef Daniel Czebiniak and Associate Director of West Campus Dining Paul Muscente. They talked about what their various duties and goals are in their respective jobs. I found this Rose Scholars event to be very interesting. For a person who lives on West Campus and eats at the various dining halls all the time, I was interested in hearing about what goes on “behind the scenes” and how the food that I eat gets prepared. It was great to see that a lot of time, thought, and passion goes into every meal that is served here at Cornell. Because of this, it is very easy to believe that Cornell is ranked top 10 in the nation in dining halls and number 1 in New York State. What I also found interesting was the raw number of meals served each day. According to Mr. Muscente, over 19,000 meals are served at Cornell each day. The amount of food that 19,000 meals equates to is unimaginable. Overall, this was a great Rose Scholars event. It was a great opportunity to learn more about something that greatly affects our daily lives here at Cornell. Especially in the case of dining, I think that this area is often over-looked in terms of importance in college life, but after attending this Rose Café, I have found a new appreciate for all the hard work that the employees put in to ensuring that the students can eat quality food.

The Glass Ocean

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Café featuring guest speaker Professor Drew Harvell. Professor Harvell is leading an effort to restore Cornell’s Blaschka glass collection. The Blaschka Brothers were glass blowers who sold their collection of glass, aquatic animals to Cornell. These items were meant to be educational tools to teach students about aquatic life. However, due to time and use, many pieces were broken down and eventually stored away. Thanks to Professor Harvell, the pieces of art are being restored and put on display at Cornell.
This Rose Café was enjoyable for many reasons. For one, it is always gratifying and uplifting to someone work on something that he or she is so passionate about. Professor Harvell’s love for marine ecology is very infectious and even inspired me to go visit the Blaschka collection myself. The amount of detail that each piece contains is unreal and is unlike anything else I have seen before. If you have not seen the collection yet, I would highly recommend at least stopping by. I also enjoyed being able to watch the movie she made about the collection. It was interesting to learn about the origins of these glass pieces and the effort it took to craft them.

What is Environmental Terrorism?

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Last week Wednesday, I attended the Rose Café event featuring guest movie director and producer Marshall Curry. Unlike previous Rose Café events, which took place in the Rose library, this event took place at the Cornell Cinema. At the cinema, Curry screened for us his movie If a Tree Falls. The movie was a documentary, which centers on Daniel McGowan and his involvement as a member of the Earth Liberation Front movement. The documentary covers the time from Daniel’s first finding out about the ELF to his eventual arrest.

Overall, I really enjoyed this Rose Café. One of the best parts of the Café was going to the Cornell Cinema for the first time. I know it is sad that I am a junior and have never set foot inside the Cornell cinema before, but it was a great, first time experience. If it were not for the Rose Café, I probably would have never gone to the Cornell Cinema and now, after having seen a film in it, I am excited to going to more movies in the future.

In addition to enjoying my first experience at the Cornell Cinema, I found the movie quite enjoyable as well. Going in, I knew what the movie was going to be about, but I had never seen the movie before. It was interesting to see Curry emphasize that cases like that of Daniel McGowan’s is not as black and white as one may think, especially when it comes to deeming his actions as “terrorism.” The concept of terrorism was intensely analyzed in this movie as Daniel and his ELF associates felt that because they took great precautions to not do any physical harm to anyone, they did not see their actions as terrorism. Personally, I feel that terrorism is not defined by physical harm and thus their actions can be classified as terrorism, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. There obviously is no right or wrong answer as this topic is a very grey area, just as Curry portrays in his film.

Once again, I highly enjoyed this Rose Café event and I am looking forward to more events of this type in the future.

Environment Q&A

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Last week Wednesday, a panel of professors from Cornell answered various questions about the environment. Professors Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe answered many questions with topics ranging from energy sources to environmental activism. Each professor specialized in a different part of environmental science and it was interesting to see the three of them tackle questions from different views.
Despite having different specialties, they all shared the same core message that every environmental action can be analyzed through its costs and benefits. This was a very new idea to me, as I have always thought of environmental activities as very black or white. Either activity ‘X’ is bad for the environment or activity ‘X’ is good for the environment. After attending this event, I learned that this is not always the case and that there are some grey areas. For example, while fracking may have negative consequences on the environment, it releases a lot less carbon than the burning of coal. People need to get their energy from somewhere so would we rather use fracking or coal.
Another topic that I enjoyed was the topic about environmental activism. The overall theme with environmental activism is that there is a lot of concern over the environment but not much is being done. When asked by the panel if any of us were concerned about the environment, everyone in the audience raised their hand. However, when asked if any of us participated in activities to help the environment, only a couple of people raised their hand. I was guilty of not raising my hand for the latter question and personally, I feel that the environmental problem is too large for me to make a difference. However, according to the panel, the easiest way to help the environment is to become educated on being environmental conscious and to spread this education wherever you go.
Overall, I thought that the event was good. I really enjoyed seeing the three professors working together and using their knowledge of different areas of environmental science to answer the audience’s questions. The Q&A format was also a nice change to the typical “presentation” or lecture format seen in most Rose Café events.

An Eye Opening Experience in War Crimes

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Last week Wednesday I attended Professor Jens Ohlin’s talk about international criminal law. He explained to us the basic rules of warfare, as well as, what actions are deemed as a war crime. A large part of his talk centered around the United States attack on the hospital in Afghanistan.

This talk was a very eye opening experience for me. I never knew that there were international laws about war. I had just assumed that once war had begun, everything was fair game. For example, I did not know that hospitals were considered safe zones during war. I also did not know that wounded soldiers are considered a civilian and thus cannot be attack with exceptions. From Professor Ohlin’s talk, I also learned that there are many exceptions to the rules of warfare. These exceptions create a grey area, which makes it hard to prove whether certain actions are actually war crimes.

In regards to the U.S. attack on the Afghanistan hospital, it was interesting to hear both sides of the argument during the talk. On one hand, if the U.S. believed that there were key enemies hiding in the hospital then they might have had a legitimate reason for attacking the hospital. However, on the other hand, about 22 innocent people died and it is hard to justify any attack when innocent people pay the price with their lives. I think it is difficult to make a decision in this matter until all facts are known.

Overall, the talk was a great experience. I had never before heard of international war crimes, nor had I heard about the U.S. attack on the Afghanistan Hospital. Professor Ohlin was a great speaker and I am intrigued to learn more about this topic and what happens following the U.S. attack.