Author Archives: Lining Zheng

Protect and Empower Yourself

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Before attending the Self-Defense workshop last Friday, I was expecting a lot of kicking and punching, because I always sort of associated self-defense with fighting. To my surprise, the workshop did not do much kicking or punching, but taught us moves and techniques on how to get away from the person assaulting you rather than trying to fight with him. We learned a lot of different moves to deal with different situations, such as striking with your palm, kicking with your knee, twisting your wrists free when somebody grabs your wrists and ducking under the arm to free your neck when somebody’s choking you. When trying these moves with my friend, I was pretty amazed at how well they worked and felt that I learned something very valuable. Another thing worth pointing out is how voice affects our moves. Shouting out while doing moves makes a huge difference in the power of the move, and makes you feel a lot stronger.

However, I feel the most important thing about self-defense that I learned is attitude. When confronting danger, it is important to keep a ‘tiger’ attitude, feeling strong, confident and ready to defend yourself. If you position yourself looking weak and clumsy, it is hard to defense yourself effectively. It almost seems to me that attitude brings more strength in your moves than your muscles. But there is a huge difference between being confident and being aggressive. The point of learning self-defense is to protect and empower yourself, not to pick up fights.

Behind the Scenes of Cornell Dining

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I’ve always liked the food at Cornell, and I especially enjoyed the food on West Campus. But before participating in today’s cafe, I had no idea that so much was happening at Cornell Dining. It serves around 22000 meals a day, and handling waste food, determining allergens, and setting up dining times all take more effort than they appear to be. The cafe covered a lot of miscellaneous things, but what I appreciate most about Cornell Dining is that they have been constantly trying to improve and introduce new things. Today I learned that Cornell Dining has now launched its own app, which I believe would be very convenient since I personally like to check menus and dining hours on my phone a lot.

Cornell Dining also has been trying very hard to promote healthy eating, encouraging us to eat more vegetables and fruit and control the amount of protein we intake. The ‘Five Days of Five’ event last semester, increasing about 10% more vegetables in the food served and rationing the meat in the dining halls all serve for this purpose. I feel this is very necessary because consuming excessive protein does not benefit our bodies at all but the production of meat uses up way much more resources than producing vegetables and fruit. Having more vegetables and fruit and limiting our proteins would both benefit our health and the environment. I totally support what Cornell Dining is doing and I hope it could really help people improve their diets.

The Wonders of the Ocean

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In this week’s cafe, we had a chance to watch a short film Fragile Legacy and explore the magnificent Ocean. The film started by introducing Leopold and Redolph Blaschka, two glass artisans that made glass models of marine life. I was truly amazed by how fine and delicate the glass models are, and their high resemblance to marine creatures. It must have taken huge amounts of effort to create these glass pieces, and their dedication and passion for both art and the ocean impress me a lot. It would be nice to see the glass for real some day and I’m happy to learn that they will be exhibited in the Johnson Museum next year.

Besides appreciating these glass pieces, we also learned about the environmental issues of the Ocean. Due to the rising concentration of carbon in the atmosphere, the Ocean is taking in more carbon dioxide and growing more acidic, which causes some organisms to have trouble growing shells. Some people’s dynamite fishing destroyed coral reef habitats. An epidemic broke out among starfishes, now causing the population of starfish to decrease dramatically. Just like the Blaschka collection, these species under the sea are all extremely precious and fragile. We don’t want to lose all these wonders of the Ocean, and it is important for us to be aware of the severeness of these ecological issues.

 

Environmental Issues: More Complicated than It Seems

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At this week’s Becker-Rose cafe, professors Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe answered our questions concerning the environment and gave us insightful opinions. Everybody knows that it is important to protect the environment, but when it comes to how to protect the environment, a lot of problems come about.

One of the problems is energy. People have been debating for years whether nuclear power is a source of “green” energy. It does not cause mass pollution, but treating nuclear waste is still a big problem. Moreover, since the Fukushimi nuclear disaster, the safety of nuclear power has been a huge concern, and countries such as Japan and Germany are rethinking their nuclear policies. I realize how hard it is to make a decision with so many factors to consider.

The professors also mentioned that enforcing environmental tax on firms is a good way to make firms pay for polluting and encourage them to use more eco-friendly means of manufacturing. However, the environment problem is a global problem, and decisions such as imposing tax are made by country. Issues such as climate change and ocean pollution have worldwide impacts, but international collaboration does not seem strong enough. We have not yet reached a global consensus on how we should work together to protect the environment. But as the professors said, no matter in what way we choose to collaborate, we need to collaborate.

Although there are so many problems, I am happy to learn that Cornell is doing a lot to help the environment. Cornell has its own hydroelectric plant, and I was surprised to learn that we cool our building in the summer by using the deep cool water in Cayuga Lake. Now Cornell is planning to use the deep geothermal energy thousands of mile beneath the ground to heat our buildings. I feel this is quite a bold decision to make, since nobody had done this before and it is quite risky. I am proud that Cornell cares about the environment and I believe we as Cornellians should do what we could to help, such as recycling, reusing plastic bags, shortening our shower time and walking instead of driving.

West Campus: More than Just Dorms

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Last Saturday, professor Blalock gave us a fascinating tour of West Campus. Before this tour, I thought I know a lot about West Campus. I know where most buildings are located, I explore different dining halls, and I have an idea of the accomplishments of the professors whom each house is named after. But the tour made me realize how little I know, and that West Campus is not just a group of dorms that look gorgeous under the sunset. It has many secrets and a lot of history behind it.

Our first stop of the tour was Noyes. I was pretty confused when professor Blalock brought us there, because Noyes doesn’t seem special at all to me and I can’t think of any secrets that this ordinary community center could have. But it turned out that it had a lot more resources than I thought it would. It has a badminton court where I can play my favorite sport on Saturdays and don’t have to lament on living far away from Helen Newman. Free food and free massages on every other Tuesdays are also appealing and would sure attract me to go to Noyes more.

Our second stop was in front of Lyons. In the drizzle, professor Blalock talked about the history of the two war memorials: McFaddin Hall and Lyon Hall, and we were able to take a look at the memorial room in Lyon. The room was small, quite and clean. It reminds how fortunate I am to be born in a world of peace, and how I should cherish my current freedom and happiness.

Our last stop was the tunnel between Rose and Becker.  On the event description a secret tunnel was mentioned, and I thought it might be a small tunnel in the basement of one of the Gothic buildings. But when we ended up walking to Rose through the tunnel, I was amazed and appreciated Cornell’s effort in building a safe residential community for us.

Overall, this tour helped me learn more about the history of West Campus, the history of Cornell, and moreover, incited me to learn more about this great University that I am attending.

Facing History

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During this Wednesday’s Rose cafe, Professor Cheyfitz gave an inspiring talk on the history and present situations of the Native Americans. As an international student from China, I don’t know much US history, not to say the history of Native Americans. And it really shocked me when I learned how much cruelty the Native Americans experienced in the past, and how they continue to struggle economically now. Moreover, people today are still not fully informed of this part of history. When professor Cheyfitz asked how many people were taught some history of the Native Americans, only few people raised their hands. But when he asked how many people were educated about slavery, about half the audience raised their hands. Seeing this contrast, I feel there is a strong need for us to stop ignoring this important part of history, and encourage other people to learn more about the Native Americans as well. Living on the land that belonged to the Native Americans, we should at least face our history, acknowledge what have been done, and give them the respect they deserve.

College is Not about Where You Go, But What You Make of It

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In this week’s Rose cafe, professor Schwarz gave us an inspiring talk on how to succeed in college and prepare for the future. He gives us many useful tips, such as get to know professors well, take some humanities courses and plan early and carefully for graduation. Interestingly, his talk reminds me of a book I read before: ‘How to Win at College’, by Cal Newport. It surprises me that although both professor Schwarz and Newport share a lot of similar opinions, the book and the talk are pretty different and give quite different advice.

The talk feels more like giving a big picture, while the book gives more specific suggestions. Both mentioned the importance of doing research, having fun, having enough sleep, etc. But what I like more of professor Schwarz’s talk is that he gives us an idea of what students should be focusing on each college year. As a sophomore, I feel completely different as I started the new school year. I often get confused and become unsure on how to balance study, work, activities and all kinds of other opportunities. Professor Schwarz’s talk really gives me guidance on how to plan my four years(or the three years left) wisely and prepare myself for the future. The book doesn’t mention much about the goals of each year, but gives a lot of practical tips, which some I find very useful. Such tips include like how to write papers, how to prepare for tests, how to learn the most from lectures and so on.

Another amusing difference is that professor Schwarz believes everyone should have some knowledge of economics and computer science, while Newport thinks art history and astronomy are the classes everyone has to take. How interesting!

Overall, college is an amazing experience and I believe both the talk and the book give me good advice on how to live my college years to the most. As professor Schwarz said, ‘College is not about where you go, but what you make of it.’ Work hard, and have fun!