Coffee & Conversation / ICL Announcements
Join ICL Social Director Eunice Porter to start our new semester the way ICL’ers do it best: eating and drinking!
9:45 a.m.
Smullin B-17
View from the Center of the Universe
For the first time in human history, a scientific theory of the universe as a whole is emerging—a theory that explains how the universe operates, what it is made of, where it came from and how it is evolving. Drawn from the latest discoveries and ideas in astrophysics and cosmology, it allows us to understand the universe as a whole and our extraordinary human—profound and central—place in it. By understanding the universe, we begin to understand ourselves. This DVD is of a 10/25/06 multimedia presentation at the NASA Research Park by Primack & Abrams.
11:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
Live ICL Phone Conference Q&A Period with the Authors
Joel R. Primack is Professor of Physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is one of the world’s leading cosmologists and one of the originators of the theory of Cold Dark Matter, which has become the standard modern theory. He and his team use supercomputers to simulate the evolution of the universe and compare the results with observational data. Nancy Ellen Abrams is a lawyer, writer and former Fulbright Scholar. While working for the U.S. Congress, she co-created a method by which government agencies can make wise policy decisions in cases involving scientific uncertainty.
Farming, Food and Your Health
The safety of the American food system has come under increased scrutiny since the discoveries this year of dangerous imports, and the subsequent recalls by major U.S. food companies. Moreover, there is increasing evidence, according to opponents of genetically engineered foods, that these foods are not as safe as claimed by federal regulatory agencies. This presentation will examine the food you eat, using recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST), a genetically engineered hormone injected into cows to increase milk production, as one example of the increasing controversy over American food safety.
Our presenter is Rick North, director of the Safe Food Campaign at the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Thursday, January 17
10:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
Classical Masters—The Symphony Video Series
First-rate symphonists crowded the 1770s and 1780s. This lecture discusses five of these masters, including the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.
For a biography of Professor Robert Greenberg, click here.
A list of his Teaching Company courses with links to descriptions and purchasing information can be found here.
11:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
David Monette—Trumpet
Dave Monette is a trumpet manufacturer who began as a repairman in Salem, and has become the Antonio Stradivari of the trumpet world. Using a combination of old world workmanship and computer technology, he makes custom-built instruments and mouthpieces, which are ordered by the greatest artists because these instruments play differently than any before their time.
David will narrate a spectacular video he has assembled explaining the fabrication, metallurgy, computer-assisted manufacturing, and other modern technologies used by businesses to create new products and compete in today’s world. He also has been strongly influenced by, and has taught, Yoga, and this has had a unique effect on his business and personal life.
For more information on David Monette’s business and his clients, with fascinating video and great stereo sound, click on: http://www.monette.net/newsite/index.htm
1:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
Nature of Earth—An Introduction to Geology Lecture 1: Continental Drift
ICL member Hardin King introduces us to a new video lecture series taught by John Reston of West Virginia University. You will find Dr. Renton spontaneous, easy to follow, funny, and extremely well organized. He has a gift for picking simple analogies that make complicated concepts clear and memorable. For example, the moving sidewalk. We have all heard of continental drift, but do the continents really move? Not exactly, says Professor Renton. They are like passengers on a moving sidewalk: the passengers don’t move, but the sidewalk does. In the same way, the continents are being carried atop the slowly moving plates of Earth’s crust. The website for the course is: http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=1700&pc=Science%20and%20Mathematics
2:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
The Brothers Grimm & Fairy Tale Psychology
Distinguished German philologist Jakob Grimm (1792–1873) assisted by his brother Wilhelm (1786–1859), collected and analyzed folk tales. They guessed that the tales carried from pre-history, clues to German culture and the specific characteristics of the German language. Their work established principles that have influenced extensive explorations of folk culture by later researchers.
Irene Konopasek will host the discussion of University of Michigan Professor Eric Rabin’s Video Lecture 17 from the Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind series.
Tuesday, January 22
10:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
Creed without Chaos: Dorothy L. Sayers’s Religious Writings
Like many fans of Dorothy L. Sayers’s fictional detective, Lord Peter Wimsy, George Fox Seminary Professor Laura Simmons was surprised to learn that Sayers wrote brilliant plays, essays, poetry, and a full-length book on religious themes. In these varied works, Sayers considered how religion—particularly Christianity—interfaced with ideas about creativity, intellect, words and language, vocation, and women’s issues.
Sayers (1893–1957) was a contemporary of thinkers, such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, who were exploring Christianity in their writing. As a woman, she was excluded from their literary society, The Inklings, but she wrote with a wit, precision and clarity that place her squarely at the forefront of their deliberations about modernity and the spiritual life. Simmons brings together material from Sayers’s published and unpublished work for a look at a complex and fascinating woman.
1:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
Justice in Frontier Oregon, 1851–1905
Just over one hundred years ago, many Oregon cities held public executions with men, women, and children congregating to watch convicted criminals hang from gallows erected in fields. In a state known for its peaceful agrarian communities, what caused such events to be accepted and even celebrated with large crowds of observers? How is it that the names of many involved in these executions now dot our state’s roads, buildings, parks, and history?
Oregon historian Diane Goeres-Gardner explores changing attitudes and perceptions—from the 1850 hanging of Native Americans for the Whitman massacre, to 1905, when the last execution in Oregon outside of a penitentiary took place. By understanding the heritage and burden of this strange history, we are better prepared to consider the modern questions of justice that confront us.
Thursday, January 24
10:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
American Broadway Musicals Lecture 4: The Ragtime years (c. 1890–1917)
Ragtime, like Rock in our generation, became a youthful rebellion against the music of the older generation. This lecture looks in depth at many talented performers and Broadway shows which featured the livelier ragtime sound, and the doors it opened for many black performers such as Bert Williams. Fads come and go, but this one gave America a rhythmic vocabulary that became a permanent part of the Broadway musical.
This video lecture will be followed by more excerpts of the music, presented by Grant Hagestedt.
1:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
Lewis Carroll—Puzzles, Language, & Audience
Writer-mathematician-photographer Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) was third in a family of eleven children of literary and artistic interests: acrostics, parodies, puzzles, other word games. Educated at Rugby and Oxford, he became a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford in 1955. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) was an expanded impromptu story that originated during a boat trip with the young daughters of a friend. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There followed in 1871. For young readers, the stories offer jokes, puzzles, fantasy; for adults there is a wealth of serious, sobering matters.
Carroll remains a major figure in English literature. This is Lecture 5 of our Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind series. Clif Cornwell will lead ICL to Wonderland and Professor Rubin’s video lecture.
2:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
Connections2: Revolutions
James Burke, the “scientific detective,” is back, tracking the fascinating links between technological invention, social history, economics, and, well, everything. In this lecture titled Revolutions, Burke explores the work of inventor, James Watt and his effect on the Industrial Revolution, which is then linked to the invention of steam power, paper copiers, matches, gas lighting, the telephone, television, the oscilloscope, the Apollo space flight, the discovery of corundum and its role in the development of radiography, and the discovery of DNA and genetic engineering.
Our ICL presenter is Pamela Ewing.
Tuesday, January 29
10:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
ICL Members: Up Close
This is Part II of our very well received session from last term. ICL is made up of a very interesting group of folks with fascinating backgrounds. In this session we will get to know a few of them much better, as we ask them to share an interesting story from their family, their work experience, or world experience.
Today we will hear from ICL members Dawn Smith, Sharon Rose, Carol Marshall, Ernie Williams, Francis Allen, Gene Fletcher and Marion Dearman who will each share a short personal story with us.
1:00 p.m.
Smullin B-17
The Haunting War: An American Tragedy Revisited
For many nineteenth-century Americans, the intensity of the Civil War left scars that remained long after the fever of battle had died away. Those who survived the horrific fighting, or who struggled on the forever-changed home front, bore witness to the terrible cost of a nation at war with itself.
This Oregon Council for the Humanities presentation tells the stories of these men and women in a series of vignettes bound together by period and original music. Letters, diaries and journals written by those who felt the urgency of the times were used to assemble the dialogue, and nationally recognized Civil War educators William and Carla Coleman take equal care with their historically accurate costumes, props, and music for this moving program.
Thursday, January 31
10:00 a.m.
Smullin B-17
Focus the Nation: a Nationwide Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions for America
ICL will participate when Willamette University joins thousands of other colleges in a series of day-long events. Check the website and/or the ICL bulletin board for further information.
View on Nature: East-West Perspectives
Philosophy, religion, literature and all artistic expressions in a culture are the manifestations of deeply rooted ideology. It is the cultural ethos that shapes the relationship between the subjective self and the objective world. We will examine how nature is embodied in the artistic expressions of East and West, with an emphasis on poetry and visual arts. A few representative works from the East and West will be compared.
Our presenter is Dr. Chunghei (Nan) Yun, Professor of English at Central Michigan University. Professor Yun is visiting her daughter Elise Yun (who has also presented music programs for ICL with her husband Hekun Wu).
