Dale Corson

It appears a new book and DVD has come out on the life of Cornell President Dale Corson. I look forward to reading this.


http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept09/CorsonLegacy.html

I had the opportunity to interview Dale a couple times at the Kendall retirement community in preparation for a 50th anniversary Sputnik panel discussion. He is, today, at 95 years young, a bright and wonderful conversationalist. I began to understand WHY there are jokes about Kendal having a better physics department than Cornell - there are a lot of brilliant people there.

I think the book focuses on his tenure as Cornell President and controversies centered around the Vietnam protests. But I'm actually more interested in his earlier years. From what I gathered, Corson was a figure in the Presidential Science Advisory Council and was party to the remarkable post-Sputnik efforts in science education. He was also a key figure in creating Cornell's Science and Technology Studies department.

If you're interested in science policy or the history of science in postwar America get a chance, try to get a chance to speak with him. His legacy continues to be written - as are all of ours - by simple words and stories that, unknown to the speaker, sticks with the listener for a long time.

Old Words

I recently sent out some tutoring applications, which gave me an opportunity to peruse some dusty files from my academic career. I stumbled across an essay I had written for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

I'm a little surprised how much my perception of the essay, and myself, has changed since late 2005. As late as 2007, I had thought it was a pretty good essay, and that by writing it, I was holding myself to the standards I had outlined. I had spent a couple months working on it, passing drafts back and forth with my adviser. To this day, I'm grateful for his tremendous insights into the grant application process, as well as the time and effort he expended on my behalf.

Willy Brandt and Barack Obama

I spent a bit of time this morning reading about former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, prompted by comparisons with Obama on receiving the Peace Prize. (Brandt received it in 1971 after articulating a policy of Neue Ostpolitik - engagement with the Communist East, but before substantial tangible progress had been made.)

Frank Rich as a model 21st century columnist

I'm linking to Frank Rich's most recent Op-Ed piece on the dangers of escalating the war in Afghanistan ("Two Wrongs Make Another Fiasco"). But before going into the content, I wanted to highlight that Mr. Rich, perhaps better than any other Op-Ed contributor at a print publication, makes liberal use of embedded links. I find this an incredibly useful tool to those of us who read the NYTimes online.

Modern Protest

This post was initiated by an interesting article in today's NYTimes:

Legal Cost for Throwing Monkey Wrench Into the System

Briefly, a man is facing charges of fraud for intentionally placing bids for oil and gas rights on federally owned land near national parks and monuments.

This case is fascinating for a number of reasons. I recently met a young law student from Yale who wanted to become a federal prosecutor, partly because he wanted to make sure that he could sleep at night. He said that most of the defendants brought before federal court are guilty. (I did remind him that, while probably correct, the high conviction rate could mean other things.) Cases like this, where it is clear that the defendant broke the letter of the law, but the government's actions are also suspect and conflicting, do not lend themselves to easy moral resolution.

Perhaps less philosophically, and more practically, I think this is a fine example of how protest and dissent has evolved. In the last couple years, journalists noticed the difference between Vietnam-era protests by soldiers and today's professional lobbying, permitted by existing military regulation, used by active servicemen seeking an end to the Iraq War.

Every generation is heterogeneous. But I think enough of us see opportunities to use either (or both) Alinsky-esque tactics of disruption and reform efforts using existing institutions and structures.

Though he is guilty of breaking the law, I salute Tim DeChristopher for using an innovative, effective and nonviolent method of protest, and wish him well in his defense.

Review of Capitalism: A Love Story

I just saw Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. His most recent film explores a timely theme - America's relationship with American-style capitalism, and the chief architects of the system.

It wasn't my plan to watch it opening day - I'd actually forgotten about it, until I stumbled across Thursday's Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien interview with Michael Moore.

Capitalism: A Love Story is not an examination of who knew what, and when they knew it. Like his other films, it's more of an indictment of our elected leaders, our institutions, and our culture.