Last week for the final Rose Cafe we welcomed Jeff Prince who is the Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at Indiana University to talk about the recent shift from cable to streaming services such as hulu, netflix, youtube, etc. One of the most interesting part of the talks was when we shifted to start talking about net neutrality and its implication for streaming services. I understood Prince’s description of net neutrality as meaning that internet service providers are forced to charge people on the suppliers side evenly for using their internet services. For example, Netflix doesn’t have to pay more than other people despite the fact that they are using so much data to stream video. However, Prince pointed out that we do not have net neutrality on the demand side, since customers have to pay different prices in order to get faster internet. Prince stated that he can see both the merits and detriments of net neutrality, especially so since he has made personal contact with Ajit Pai, the current chairman of the FCC who has vowed to get rid of net neutrality. I personally think that getting rid of net neutrality is really dumb, as I believe it would stifle start-up growth.
Author Archives: lrg79
Bread and Roses
Last Friday, we watched the movie Bread and Roses directed by Ken Loach, a movie depicting the life that struggling immigrants face in society; Specifically regarding the struggle of poorly paid janitors in Los Angeles.
I was curious about where the name Bread and Roses came from, as it is unique enough to likely posses some significance, and found out that it was derived from a 1911 poem by James Oppenheim, however over time it became associated with the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. This perfectly fits with the movie, as it depicts a janitorial strike.
The story is told through Maya’s perspective. She’s an illegal immigrant who has just arrived to Los Angeles with limited English language abilities. She initially is given a job working at a bar, however pushes to become a janitor with her sister.
My favorite scenewas when Rosa (Maya’s sister) is yelling at Maya and telling her to stop being so idealistic, as the real world is not rose-colored. She tells her sister how she was a prostitute in order to get Maya her education, and sleep with her supervisor in order to get Maya her job. This really impacted me, as it really made me think about the privileges that I have in my life compared to others.
Torture
Last week at the Rose Cafe we were fortunate enough to welcome Nick Cheesman, from Australian National University and his research companion, Pornpen, an activist from Thailand, to talk about torture in South East Asia. We spoke about torture, how effective/not effective it is, and how it imposes on people’s rights. I did not know the topic of the talk going into the cafe, and did not expect such a heavy topic; the rose cafe’s are normally light-hearted and mildly academic related.
I was very interested in Cheesman and Pornpen’s viewpoint about why torture still occurs. Pornpen stated that her research points to the idea that torture is a cathartic way of dealing with an issue without solving the core of the problem. I find this statement really accurate, as it also explains the concept of scapegoats.
In addition, one of the most interesting questions asked during this cafe was the question “Does torture work.” Cheesman stressed that this question itself was dangerous. Furthermore, despite various political assertions recently that torture is effective, Cheesman stated that this was not true. I completely agree with Cheesman’s statement, and find the amount of people who do not agree, and the fact that our own president does not agree with Cheesman’s viewpoint very disturbing. Perhaps this is a product of propaganda in our society? For example, the fact that torture is shown to be so effective in movies and plays, etc.
After this question was asked, Cheesman proceeded to warn us that he would begin to talk about something disturbing, and we were welcome to leave. As I am someone who was feeling uncomfortable, I left at this point.
Logistics of Rose
At this week’s rose cafe we spoke with Doctor Hill and discussed the logistics of Rose House living, and what could be done to create a more distinct identity among houses. One of the people in the cafe brought up a point that because selection into these houses is largely based on convenience rather than a common interest, this is largely impossible to facilitate. The common interest at the moment, at least among rose scholars, is simply the desire for a bed on campus for next year. Furthermore, I feel that as sophomores at Cornell, we have already established who our close friends throughout college will likely continue to be, and trying to force friendships will be counter intuitive.
I find it really funny that trying to make people more proud to be in the housing group that we live in through physical competition was unsuccessful. Personally, I think that this again has to do with the fact that people only live here for convenience. Further, because Cornell is so academically oriented, people spend their free time mostly studying. I personally would not be that interested in a competition like that, as I am busy doing homework, and I cannot imagine that I am alone.
Another thing that we talked about was having more consistent events. I would really love this. At the moment, I can only make the rose cafe, however it is extremely stressful as most of my assignments are due on Thursday morning. Therefore, I have to go to Rose Cafe, write up a blog post, and then stress as I have lost some time to do a problem set due the next day. Therefore, more consistent events throughout the week would really improve future scholars’ experience.
Sports at Ivy Leagues
Last week we welcomed Paul Wilcox to the Rose Cafe. Being a bit of a video game nerd who was forced into sports earlier in my life, I am personally not very interested in sports, so I was not expecting the talk to solicit much interest from me. I personally could not really care less about the dynamics of a team sport, and ones training regime. However, I was very excited to learn not only that that his presentation was about track and field (the only sport that I have ever participated in since I am uncoordinated), but the presentation also didn’t really focus so much on the sports itself, but more the history and culture exchanged from these sports, and how participating in these sports affected the athlete’s lives.
I ran cross country in high school, however I was only good enough to be the slowest person on my high school’s team to make it into the state competitions. Therefore, hearing about the cultural exchange going on between the athlete’s competing at a collegiate level really drove home how different sports are from a high school perspective and a college perspective. As a high school student, participating in a school sport just meant going to practice and dying for 2 hours. However as a college athlete, so much of ones life at that level revolves around the sport, since being that good at a sport allows an athlete to get more opportunities than they otherwise would be able to get.
When he was talking about the effect that the sport itself has on athletes, I was reminded of the athletes from England in the United States at Cornell last week. He had mentioned that the athletes need to prepare for finals as they begin right after they return. I cannot imagine the stress of having to prepare for finals while also being abroad for a sports meet. I wonder what they will get out of their time in the US other than stress. Personally, if I were in these athlete’s circumstance, I would be too stressed to sleep.
Andre Simons at Cornell
Two weeks ago, we welcomed Andre Simores to Cornell, a visiting agricultural economist who spoke to us about life in Brazil and the agricultural economy. He had spoken to us about his experience being a professor at Brazil, and the differences between American educational institutions and Brazilian educational institutions. In his opinion, American institutions are much more prosperous than Brazilian institutions. To me, likely reasons for this are that American institutions are largely research facilities, and therefore draw faculty who want to do research. Furthermore, the cost of attendance is 60k+ a year, and therefore the university receives funding to provide the best educational opportunities possible.
I enjoyed the part of the talk when Simores used google maps and google images, with the aid of his girlfriend, to show us the geography of Brazil, and the locations of the cities that he lived in and other populated cities. I was not familiar with the geography of Brazil nor the scenery and agriculture, and enjoyed this casual way of becoming better affiliated with it. Before this talk, I was only really familiar with Rio de Janiro due to the olympics.
Finally, as he is an agriculture economist, Simores also spoke to us about the agricultural economy in Brazil. He stated that Brazil’s agricultural economy was not nearly as well developed as the United States’ in some parts.
Altogether, I really enjoyed the insight Simores had to offer on various topics, and enjoyed his cafe.
Sam Beck at Cornell
This week we were fortunate enough to welcome Sam Beck to speak at this week’s rose cafe. Although I feel like I say this every week, I really felt that Sam was one of the best speakers that we have had. He established the casual atmosphere right from the beginning of the cafe, and encouraged us to relax and participate in a free back-and-forth kind of discussion with him.
Further, I enjoyed how he personally asked each student about what they want to do in the future, and what they hope to accomplish. I also felt that he was listening very intently about my current studies, and really cared to listen and offer advice. For a stranger to offer so much sympathy and an open ear was really refreshing, and made me leave the rose cafe feeling much more positive than I had come in initially after doing so much homework.
One of the most important topics that he talked about to me was when he was emphasizing the importance of getting a mentor in order to aid one to accomplish their specific goal. I thoroughly agree with this idea. There is so much wisdom that others more experienced have to offer. Also, in my experience, others are also much more willing to impart this wisdom than one would think. People generally seem very excited to share what they have learned through experience in order to aid a peer. I find this to be especially true at Cornell, as there are so many ways to get fellow student mentors, such as joining a service fraternity. Personally, I have joined WICC and have signed up for a mentorship program through that in the past, which has helped me get an internship this year and last year.
I hope in the future that we get other speakers as inspiring and positive as Beck. I really, really enjoyed this week’s cafe.
Feminism at Cornell
It was really interesting hearing about the experiences other women had being females in STEM at Cornell. One experience which was especially interesting was one student told us about a time that she was in a group project for a Chemistry class, and her other male teammates offered to do her part of the group project for her. To be honest, I was very surprised to hear that she had experienced this kind of discrimination at Cornell. No one has ever implied that I would be less competent than them since I am a woman in tech. If I were in her position, while I would have been happy at the idea of not having to do a group project and tempted to have accepted their kind offer of doing the work for me, I would have also been really discouraged and surprised at receiving this kind of treatment. Luckily though, it has never happened so far.
Another interesting thing we talked about was the percentage of females in office hours. It seems that whenever I go to office hours for 4000+ level CS classes, it is more than half female, despite the CS major being about 30% female. People hypothesized that this may have been because women more readily admit their mistakes. I am not sure I agree with this, however I think that it is an interesting thought.
Nutrition During the Great Depression
Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Jane Ziegelman to Rose house, and learned of nutrition during the Great Depression and the American relationship to food.
One of the things which I found fascinating in the talk was how nutritionists and scientists were proponents of a flavorless diet, in addition to introducing fortified cereals and cream-based sauces into the American diet. I find this interesting as I had read an article earlier describing a similar occurrence in Japan during the great depression. In order to feed everyone cheaply, the government promoted fried bread as healthy, as it was a cheap source of fats, carbohydrates, and calories. This strongly echos the fatty cream-based sauces and grains that scientists pushed as healthy during the American Great Depression. I find it really sad that people were not as knowledgeable about what constituted a proper diet, as many people were probably malnourished. Further, the lack of knowledge about what was actually healthy explains the much shorter life expectancy in the 1930’s versus now (60 vs 80).
In addition, it is interesting to note that fortified cereals (and fried bread in Japan) are still incredibly popular today, and many people consume it every morning. Perhaps this is a lingering effect of promoting fortified cereals so strongly during the Great Depression.
Another interesting things I learned during this talk was how Flora Rose’s knowledge about food helped assuage famine after World War I and during the Great Depression. The more I learn about her, the more proud I am to be living in Rose house this year and next year.
Welcoming Judge Miller
I thoroughly enjoyed the last rose cafe with Judge Miller. One of the things which stands out even a week later is Judge Miller’s humor and his experiences as an attorney. His humor was extremely light hearted, and was unexpected especially from someone who has had to have witnessed the very bad sides of humanity, being a criminal judge. Especially the joke about the “get out of jail free card” should we (that day’s rose cafe audience) be arrested for some offense. I also enjoyed his very thoughtful responses on the excellent questions given. Particularly, his stance on how judges should not be elected, but rather appointed. I was talking about this the other day with my friend, and had come to the same conclusion that Miller had: if one is elected and has to maintain their seat, it may impact their ruling in order to maintain a good public impression. I also enjoyed hearing his stance on heroin dispensaries, especially given the fact that he probably has much more of a personal and professional insight into this issue given that he has met people who had been repeatedly arrested due to their heroin addiction. Overall, this had to be one of my favorite rose cafe’s so far, due to Judge Miller’s insights, interesting stories, and humor.
Listening to the Other Side
At this rose cafe, we were lucky enough to welcome Peter Enns, an expert on government. During this more conversational rose cafe, one student brought up the importance of communicating with people who don’t necessarily hold our political beliefs. I find this kind of sentiment very important, especially considering the divided nature of our country today. As a result, I have tried to browser multiple forums and talk to people I know who support Donald Trump, in addition to view what people are saying about various issues and new articles around the country. When I do this, I find that though we are discussing the same things, we tend to have completely different sources and realities. While I try to be unemotional and level-headed when discussing these topics, I find it hard at times. For example, upon asking one of my friends how she feels about Trump’s lack of concern over the changing climate, she stated that she was unconcerned, as humans are a warm weather species. As you can imagine, this was very hard to respond to in a respectful way.
Basically, while I identify with the sentiment of trying to communicate with people who are “outside” of your echo chamber, it is incredibly difficult to achieve this when you and the other person have two extremely different realities. I can respect peoples differing views on how government funds should be spent, level of executive reach, etc. but I find it hard to respect others which have no basis in scientific reality. Nor do I think that their views should be respected.
Cornell’s History
This week we welcomed Eileen Keating from the Cornell archives. I share the sentiment that this was one of the most interesting Rose Cafes that I had been to, since I got to learn so much about Cornell’s history that I had honestly not previously cared, nor though to learn about. After learning about the contributions that Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer made to further women’s rights and education, I now hold more pride in being a Rose resident. However the most interesting part of the talk was learning about the College of Human Ecology’s history, originally the College of Home Economics. The fact that Van Rensselaer created a method which allowed for women to get access to higher education at no cost speaks about Van Rensselaer’s influence, in addition to sheds light on her contribution to the women’s rights movement.
I also found the artifacts that Eileen Keating passed around in the cafe very engaging. She gave us a glimpse into how the College of Home Economics used to be. Some of the documents showed the curriculum, which included how to operate efficiently and aid women on farms.
Overall, I thought that this talk was incredibly fascinating. I had a vague understanding that Cornell was one of the earlier colleges which offered admissions to women, but before this talk that idea remained vague. After hearing about the specific accomplishments of this school with regards to advancing women’s rights, I am even more proud to be a Cornellian.