As someone who loves sushi, when I saw that Rose was having a sushi demonstration, I knew that I wanted to attend. The event was quite informative, and it finally explained why Cornell Dining’s sushi never seemed to taste quite right. Apparently the most important part of making sushi is getting the rice right, which is something that is especially hard to do in bulk. I also learned that traditional sushi rolls have the rice on the inside, but “American” sushi is often made with the rice on the outside. I found this fact to be intriguing, because I never really paid much attention to which side the rice was on until that talk. Now I have found myself noting whether the sushi I am eating is made the traditional way or the American way. I have discovered that I do eat both, but–most likely due to the general preference in the United States–most was made the American way.
Author Archives: Shannon
Don’t Enter The Garden of Drunkenness
Recently, I attended Michael Fontaine’s unusual talk on binge drinking. I describe this talk as unusual, because it was unlike any Rose Cafe I have ever attended before. We read the translation of a Latin text that described a fictitious painting in great detail. Titled “The Garden of Drunkenness,” the text started off with a description of the landscape (a garden surrounded by a field), and then moved onto the people present. The initial people described seemed to behave fairly normally. These people depicted drinking in moderation. They would drink for a bit and enjoy the festivities around them, and then they would go home. All of this occurred outside of the garden. However, the text continued with those who entered into the garden–those who did not want to stop drinking. These people were not described as people at all, but rather as various animals. Also, most of these animals are vomiting, but for the most part, it is not wine that they are vomiting (the exception is the sheep, who are “naive drunks”). Instead, the pigs are vomiting snakes, the cow are vomiting frogs, the goats are vomiting gemstones, and the bears are vomiting swords and sticks (There are other animals vomiting as well, but this list is already growing quite long). The text then ends with an explanation of what happens when the animals then leave the garden. Throughout our reading of the text in the cafe, a couple of students volunteered to draw everything that was being described. At first, I was skeptical as to why it was necessary to draw out the descriptions in the text, but once we finished reading it I realized that it was incredibly detailed, and that drawing it out was actually quite helpful.
The Women of Wakanda
Not long ago, I was able to watch the movie Black Panther for the second time. This is a fantastic movie that has far too much to talk about with just a single blog post. However, one thing that stood out to me was the women. This movie has several great female characters. Furthermore, the women in the film often take on roles that typically are not portrayed by women. This is particularly true for the Dora Milaje–a group of female warriors led by Okoye. Seeing women holding such a position was certainly surprising the first time I saw the film, as it is so uncommon to show something like that. Yet it was extremely satisfying to see women in such a role. Okoye in particular was an amazing character. In fact, she was probably one of my favorite characters in the entire movie.
After the movie was over, one of the things that was discussed was the great female characters in the film. However, there was one female character that I love who was not mentioned: Shuri, T’Challa’s sister. As a woman who is planning on going into engineering–a typically male-dominated field–it was incredibly inspiring to see that the most technologically innovative person in Wakanda was a woman. Furthermore, she was not portrayed as someone who just locks herself away to do research. Instead, she is actively shown interacting with the other characters, and she is shown to be someone who enjoys having fun (and pulling pranks on her brother), in addition to doing research. Overall, Shuri is portrayed as a excellent female character involved in a STEM-related field.
Decision Making With the AREA Method
Last Wednesday, I attended Cheryl Einhorn’s Rose Cafe on making big decisions. She particularly focused on her AREA method. I found this method to be interesting, as I have never heard of any decision making methods before. It seems useful to have a decision making method to rely on when you have to make an important decision. I particularly liked how it was pointed out that you should identify what your version of a successful decision would look like before even beginning the decision making process. This thus incorporates a person’s unique desires, and allows for two different people making the same decision to arrive at different outcomes. I also liked how the AREA method can be used to help people show others how they arrived at a decision, which could be useful when trying to convince others to agree with the decision that you made.
Imagine a Mountain…
I recently attended SA Katie’s Table Talk on meditation. I didn’t have any experience with meditation, and I was curious to see what it was like. Katie started out by giving all of us a brief overview and history of meditation, which was interesting since I did not know how it had spread to mainstream Western culture. Finally, at the end, Katie led us through two different guided meditation sessions. The first was a mindfulness meditation, while the second was a visualization. I definitely preferred the first script, as I am not very good with visualization in general. However I noticed that Katie’s visualization script actually helped me visualize better. When told to imagine a mountain, I initially pictured a rather generic mountain image, like the ones often seen as company logos. It was just a simple snow-covered peak, without anything else on it. In fact, that’s all there was–just the peak. Katie’s visualization script, however, led me to imagine what the base of the mountain looked like, and I started to actually add in vegetation. Yet it took a lot of concentration for me to maintain this image, and the second my mind started to wander, I ended up losing it. In the first meditation we did, I was able to follow along much more easily.
We All Receive Government Aid, We Just Don’t All Realize It
Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Suzanne Mettler give a talk on government programs and on how people view the U.S. government. What I found most interesting about the talk was the fact that most people–regardless of income level–receive some sort of aid from the federal government. This is contrary to the common belief that only low income people receive government aid. What does vary based on income, however, is the type of aid–particularly whether that aid is visible or not. Most government programs that provide visible aid are primarily used by the poor, which makes it look like they are the only ones receiving aid. However government programs, such as tax deductions for people with mortgages, primarily aid higher-income people. As a result, everyone benefits from government programs, but people of higher income are less likely to realize it. This leaves me wondering if an increased awareness of how higher-income people benefit from government programs might help combat the sigma against “welfare” in this country.
An Unusual Way of Combating Sexual Violence
Recently I attended the Rose Cafe on sexual violence prevention, led by Laura Weiss. This cafe was actually very different from what I was expecting. Instead of discussing topics like consent, the talk focused on how to prevent sexual violence through unusual means. One example that was provided was the addition of coat racks at fraternities hosting parties. Previously the fraternities would just have everyone put their coats in a locked room upstairs designated for that purpose. This situation was noted as being a potential safety concern, since partygoers would have to experience a period of relative isolation in order to retrieve their coats before leaving. As a result, the fraternities were all suggested to get coat racks. This eliminated the need for a coat room, as people could just keep their coats on the coat rack near the door and pick them back up on their way out of the party. What I found most interesting about the implementation of this idea, was that the suggestion to fraternities to get coat racks was not framed in a safety-concern type of way. Instead it was suggested that the addition of coat racks would be a nice hospitality gesture for their guests at parties. By framing these types of suggestions not as ways to reduce sexual violence–which implies that the ones receiving the suggestions are potential perpetrators–but as ways to increase the enjoyment of the events, I think people are less likely to be defensive about hearing the suggestions, and therefore more likely to actually implement them.
Prescribing Antibiotics
Last Wednesday I attended Professor Alabi’s talk on bacteria and antibiotic resistance. I found this talk to be really interesting. One thing that stood out to me was how doctors sometimes have a tendency to over-prescribe antibiotics to people. According to Professor Alabi, most healthy individuals would generally be fine without taking antibiotics, and instead just letting the immune system handle it. Furthermore, doctors often do not know if an infection is bacterial or viral, and typically in the amount of time it would take to test it the infection has already passed. In order to satisfy the patient, doctors tend to just prescribe antibiotics without knowing if it is even bacterial. I remember experiencing something like this a few years ago, where my doctor actually told me that she did not know if I had a bacterial or viral infection, and that she was going to prescribe antibiotics to me just to be safe. Looking back at the incident, I am reasonably certain that I would have been fine without taking antibiotics at that time, however since a doctor — who theoretically knows more than I do about medicine — suggested that I take antibiotics, I thought that I should. Perhaps if doctors did not feel like they had to give their patients something, and were more willing to tell their patients to just go home and wait an infection out, then antibiotics would not be as overused.
One thing that I am glad that Professor Alabi mentioned was that we should use common sense on whether or not to take antibiotics. As someone who has actually had a fairly serious bacterial infection (I was in the hospital for several days), it was obvious to me at the time that I needed some sort of medical care. However, in most cases I can recover on my own without the need for antibiotics.
Super Bowl Betting
Prior to GRF Shiv’s event before the game on Super Bowl Sunday, I knew nothing about the game that was about to happen. Despite the sport’s popularity in the United States, I have never found football to be interesting to watch. As a result, I did not know which teams were playing, nor did I know who was performing in the halftime show. While I had heard about the Patriots, and I knew that they had been in the Super Bowl before, I did not realize just how frequently they have not only been in the Super Bowl, but also won it. I also learned about how much it costs to show a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl, as well as other facts about the game.
What I found to be most interesting was the lesson on how sports betting works. I had previously thought that it would be a simple bet on which team would win, with maybe some sort of way to equalize the two teams if one had an obvious advantage over the other, but apparently it is much more complicated than that. There are actually multiple types of betting such as moneyline, point spread, and over/under. I think the way that I was initially considering is most like moneyline, or perhaps point spread. I never even considered that people might want to bet on the total number of points gained from both teams, as is the case for over/under betting. However, what I found to be most surprising is the variety of different things that people can bet on during the Super Bowl. It was far from just which team scored the most points. Instead people can bet on things that could potentially happen during the game. While it is unlikely that I will be betting on sports any time soon, I am glad to now understand the mechanisms behind how it works.
Healthcare Poverty Traps
Last Wednesday, I attended Professor Barrett’s talk on poverty traps and escapes. It was very informative, as I did not know much about the topic prior to the talk. The talk helped me to realize how difficult it can be to help people get out of poverty. One example of a poverty trap that I thought of in the United States is related to healthcare–which is a common topic in the news lately. Since healthcare in this country is so expensive, poor people often cannot afford to go see a doctor for a checkup. Even if they are not feeling well, they will often put off going to the doctor because they do not have the money to spare. If they are sick, then they will not be able to work to their full capacity, and therefore they could potentially earn less money. Furthermore, if they become seriously ill and have to go to the emergency room, they end up having extremely large hospital bills to pay, which just further pushes them into poverty. Meanwhile, those that have some money to spare often do go to see a doctor if they are not feeling well. This results in serious illnesses being caught early, which can reduce the time and cost of recovery. Thus, those who are not in poverty end up being less affected by illness, and are less likely to have large hospital bills. As Professor Barrett mentioned in his talk, identifying poverty traps is important, because then it is possible to find an escape from those traps. In the case of healthcare, one potential escape from poverty could be to provide preventative healthcare to the poor so that illnesses are caught early, before they become serious enough to require a visit to the emergency room. This would allow those people to recover faster–thus allowing them to work more and earn more money to help escape poverty–and reduce the costs that they have to pay to maintain their own health. Also reducing the costs of hospital bills could help people escape from poverty.