I genuinely had never thought of the concept of Free Will before house fellow Tamar Kushnir provoked discussion about it at the Rose Cafe. Throughout the discussion it was extremely difficult for me to grasp what the Kushnir meant by free will. Having never heard about free will in the academic sense I was confused as to what she meant when she kept asking if we have free will. I always though we did, as I was capable to do whatever I wanted. However, further into the discussion Kushnir explained that the concept of Free Will is a a developed concept as you mature and are able to communicate your thought. This talk was extremely interesting to me as I learnt about something that I was not familiar with.
Author Archives: ak2355
Gene Editing and the Infinite Possibilities
I came into this talk knowing little about DNA, Gene Editing, and CRISPR, however, House Fellow Nilay Yapici explained the new revolutionizing technologies that have the capability to change human. When talking about gene editing many talk about personalizing your baby, or personalizing your own self. With the new revolutionizing technology CRISPR this is possible. There are companies out there you can order the different type of CRISPR you want, and can go about changing your own DNA. Through this the possibilities are infinite. We can use CRISPR to cure different DNA disease, make plants never need pesticides, or even change a person’s eye color. But the question is when should this be allowed, what is the limit of this new revolutionizing technology? Someone must put regulations on using this technology so that we do not go out of hand making different sorts of mutations.
Twitter and American Politics
Sitting down in Prof. Avery’s apartment I learnt much about American politics and the polarization that is occurring. As an Information Science student I am extremely interested in the effects of social media in polarizing American Politics.
A few hours before this talk, Twitter announced that they would ban all political advertisements. This action came after what all is happening with Facebook. Though the action by Twitter is radical, I do not know if it will be able to reduce American polarization. I believe that there needs to be a wide-spread active force to remove polarization from the community to make change. Although Twitter’s action are a move towards the positive we need more platforms to join the force to decrease polarization.
Pumpkin Patch in the Rose Common Room
October is the season for Pumpkin everything! However, at Cornell, October is also the season for Prelims!
This evening pumpkin painting session was extremely relaxing for me, and allowed me to destress from my prelim worry. Sometimes you forget what an activity, like painting a pumpkin, can do for you. With prelim season in full swing, and pumpkin season being in full swing, I encourage you to take a break from all your stresses and enjoy a relaxing evening painting a pumpkin (or doing some other non-academic activity)! Sometimes in the rut of things at Cornell you forget to balance academics and extracurriculars, but be mindful, and remember to take out some time for yourself!
THE SCARIEST PUMPKIN OF THEM ALL
Food — A Necessity
Prof. Rossi’s talk was extremely informative about the culture and politics behind food that one would not think about. Food is a daily part of our routine. Everybody needs it. Yet, we still have many problems surrounding it. These problems range from the politics behind GMOs to Food. We can come together and make sure that we are all fed and no one sleeps empty stomached.
Food is a need,
Food is a want.
Grow it from a seed,
or make it with you Aunt.
Don’t fill your plate with greed,
instead share it with some who wants.
Unknown
Talking with Julia Felippe, at Prof. Avery’s apartment, I learnt that not always do you have to know what the next step is. During this time in our life, we sometime try to plan out our life. However, Felippe reminded us that sometimes you life path is carved as you go, and can not be pre-planned.
Here is a little poem I wrote after chatting with Felippe:
Unknown is your future,
Unknown is where you will go.
Unknown to you right now,
Will become known to you as you go.
Sexual Harassment in a Work Setting
Chatting with Angela Cornell, at Prof. Avery’s apartment, opened my eyes to a side of the work place that I had not heard about. Anti-sexual Harassment movement’s have been on the rise since the #MeToo movement. I had not realized this movement was effecting workplaces too. Cornell told us about the recent Google Walkout. Google employees all over the world walked-out of their offices to protest the recent actions of Google. Google has recently released a high level employee as a result of workplace misconduct. However, the employee was released with a very nice severance package.
As most of us are going to enter the workplace soon, Cornell reminded us to read out legal agreements with our employers before signing them!
Becoming a better Rose Blogger
This was my first Rose event of the semester! I had a great time learning how to write better blog’s, and seeing new and old Rose Scholar’s. The instructor shared about the ways we could improve writing blog, he especially highlight how we could improve our blogs when reviewing movies. One of the activities he made us do was to snap every time we noticed a scene cut in an advertisement. This activity was very fun as I had never taken into consideration the amounts of scene cuts happening while watching any media. We then discussed different features of movies we could discuss during in our blog.
Next time you watch an advertisement, snap every time the camera changes angles. You will notice that you are snapping more often than you would think! This goes to show how many things make a video, that go unnoticed.