Author Archives: Madeleine Roglich

Looking Up at the Sky

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I attended Gregory Sloan’s cafe chat regarding religion and planetary models/the solar system. And while this was all very interesting to me, as I am a huge fan of the sky and exploring what’s out there, the most fascinating this to me was the planetary orbitals. I have not taken a science class that covers the solar system since about 7th grade. Therefore, learning more about the orbitals and what thinkers such as Copernicus believed and discovered was incredibly fascinating to me. For example, the graphics that Sloan shared with us which he called simple I found to be incredibly interesting. Specifically, I don’t think I ever knew that the reason that the planets look like they are tracing back in the sky over the course of a year is because of our perspective on earth. I did know that all the planets orbited but I truly never made the connection between how different orbiting planets interacting and how that would shape our perspective on earth.

Thus, this simple, yet to me very complex idea, really taught me something I never considered before. Next time I look up, I will definitely be considering our perspective and how where we are on the moving earth and where the planets are in their orbitals is shaping our viewpoint.

Glass Art Prompting Marine Conservation

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This evening I was able to hear Drew Harvell speak about her work with Blashka glass, some of the most intricate and accurate glass models of marine life. Based on what she said and the video that we watched, I learned that these glass sculpture serve much more than art in her work. These sculptures serve are real life models of marine organisms, as they are incredibly accurate. They are used for instruction purposes and to study the lives of marine creatures.

After watching the video Drew showed, I also learned that these sculptures have made an even greater societal impact, even more than helping to educate people. These sculptures have helped scientists and marine biologists, including Drew herself, to explore the depths of the ocean. These sculptures helped provide Drew models of what to look for and explore in the ocean. And in fact, due to these models and knowing that the organisms Blashka constructed existed during his time, we now know that organisms that are now no longer highly populated must have become endangered. Thus, the interest the the Blashka glass sculptures prompted led peoples’ interest to explore the ocean. And this interest fueled more attention being directed toward the ocean and marine life. As a result, people have noticed harm being brought to marine life and have called for action.

I never would’ve guessed that the strong call for marine conservation and that exists today would be partially attributed to glass sculptures created many years ago. Art and science have found a very important intersection.

Stand For the Environment

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This evening I heard an Environmental Panel of Cornell professors speak. All of these professors represent Cornell and its move towards environmental sustainability. Multiple questions were posed during the course of the panel, a few of which were directed at the audience. We were asked how many of us cared about the environment. Almost everyone’s hand went up. We were then asked how many of us had serious concerns for the environment and the future state of it. Again, almost everyone’s hand went up. But when the question was posed of how many people have actively done something to protect the environment or voice their concern, few peoples’ hands were raised.

While nearly everyone in the crowd knows that the environment is something that needs to be protected, not many people, including myself, have actually actively done something to protect it (besides turning off the lights when you leave the room or turning off the water when you’re brushing your teeth). Though this panel informed me of the different pros and cons of thermal energy, nuclear energy, coal, etc, the main thing I took away from this evening was the need for people to DO SOMETHING. Just like anything else (i.e. a job, a project, school work), nothing is going to be accomplished if you do not act and do something. If we are concerned for the environment, then we must play an active role in learning how we can preserve it and ensure its stability for years to come.

Proportion of Human Deaths

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This evening, Professor Ohlin, a law professor here at Cornell, led a talk regarding the current event of the Afghan hospital bombing. Essentially what he did was try to teach us how those in law go about thinking of such situations. He relied on audience participation to answer his questions on why this situation could be tried in an international court of law and on what basis a country could or could not be convicted.

What really hit me during this discussion was talking of a ‘reasonable proportion’ of civilian deaths that result from an act of war. Professor Ohlin, who clearly deals with the law every day and is extremely well educated in it and comfortable with it, was talking about this idea of an acceptable amount of civilian deaths as if it was just another piece of information. Nothing against Professor Ohlin at all but the way he talked about this “proportion”, likely due to his familiarity with the subject and the fact that it is common practice in international law as well as my unfamiliarity with it, made me tense up a little bit. The fact that if a number of civilians below or at the allowed proportion are killed is acceptable is an oddity to me. I do understand that it is impossible to commit acts of war without killing civilians in total, but it seems very strange to me that there is an accepted number of civilian deaths that goes along with any attack. I don’t know if that makes me feel safe or comfortable with international law…

Later, Professor Ohlin made a comment regarding outlawing all acts of war. This made me wonder what the world would be like if that were the case. Would we all be at peace, even if it were forced upon us? Or would tensions run even deeper if countries could not assert their dominance? We may never know, but maybe in a society run that way, human deaths would not be a tally in international law, rather a sincere tragedy.

Exploring West Campus

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Today I participated in the west campus/rose house tour. I was able to explore Noyes recreation center, the War Memorial room in Lyon hall, and the “secret” tunnel connecting Becker and Rose House. I additionally was lucky enough to learn plenty of history presented by Professor Blalock on Cornell. I learned that Ezra Cornell did not have past a 3rd grade education and that he was involved in the transmission of the first ever telegraph. These are all very interesting, neat things that had I not attended the tour I likely would not have known.

What I realized post-tour was that there is so much about Cornell that students don’t know. Students generally don’t realize all the history surrounding them on Cornell’s campus or all the secrets that surround them. There is so much around Cornell that will surprise students if they learned it. What this event made me realize is that even beyond tours, there are so many other resources available to teach students about Cornell. Whether a student talks to a professor, historian or even an alumni, there are people surrounding us everywhere who have stories to tell about Cornell’s history. And if students were more open to learning about Cornell’s history, there is so much more we could learn about our school!

Our History

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This evening I heard Dr. Eric Cheyfitz speak regarding Native Indian populations in the United States. Dr. Cheyfitz spoke about how Indian populations have been and continue to be mistreated to this day. In the past, their populations were massacred from things like the Trail of Tears, ethnic cleansing, and not providing small pox vaccines to small pox ridden Indians. Additionally, 1/3 Indian women are raped, many by non-Indian men. There have also been forcible attempts to wipe out Indian culture. Almost nothing relating to Indian culture and history has seem to have been embraced by the United States. A further example that hits close to home, showing that the U.S. has always dominated Indian populations, is that the land the Cornell sits on was once the Cayuga peoples’ land, which was eventually taken from them by the government using force and fraud to obtain it.

What I learned from hearing Dr. Cheyfitz speak was that it seems that little is talked about of Indians and indigenous peoples. Their history seems to be entirely ignored and many people are unaware of the unfair, harsh treatment of these peoples. Without any attention being drawn to the topic, the government and other groups can continue to ignore and treat Indian populations wrongfully. With this being the case, people must question what else is going unnoticed in society? It seems to me that in order to correct this problem of unfairness for Indian populations, education needs to be further spread and the Indian history needs to be embraced by the U.S. government. Attention needs to be directed toward Indian Nations if we ever hope for this inequality to stop persisting. And for that matter, people must become more aware of all their surroundings so that other groups and other people are not treated wrongfully. I believe that this problem in the treatment of these Indian nations stems from peoples’ lack of knowledge and awareness. People must become more educated and aware to protect society.

Everybody Find a Place and Make a Space

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This evening I listened to Professor Dan Schwarz speak regarding his thoughts on the college experience. What I got out of this talk was that there is both an emphasis, as Professor Schwarz said and I would agree with, on seizing opportunities today but also keeping perspective on the future. Oftentimes it is very easy for people to solely focus on either a) living today like it is their last or b) planning out the future so it is perfect. The line between too much of one of the other is very fine – thus imbalance is easily the outcome.

I believe that the keys to reaching the perfect balance of seizing the day and making it count towards tomorrow are as follows:

Make connections and nurture these connections

Engage in an activity that allows you to grow as a person (i.e. a job, club)

Know what you are good at, keep practicing, and learn new things

Lastly, as Professor Schwarz said, “Everybody find a place and make a space” (I hope I didn’t botch this quote up!).

 

With these key points in mind, I believe people can successfully find opportunities today to have fun, grow, and learn while also benefitting themselves for the future.

Whether it is today or tomorrow, the final suggestion I have, which Professor Schwarz would likely endorse, is to always enjoy what you are doing. Do something that makes you feel satisfied.