Short Talk and Film Schedule for Summer 2006: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

Tues/Thurs, June 6th & 8th

• Tues, 6/6: The class watches Christopher Sykes and Ralph Leighton's The Last Journey of a Genius.

Tues/Thurs, June 13th/15th

• Tues, 6/13: Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Tangenik Lykes/Sam Bangura
  
  
• Tues, 6/13: Short talk 2: RFeynman's criticisms of counterproductive uses and abuses of authority, particularly at Los Alamos (i.e., his stories about counterproductive uses of secrecy), but you may include stories exemplifying this theme from elsewhere in the book thus far (so from SYJ,Parts 2 & 3, especially "Los Alamos from Below" and "Safecracker Meets Safecracker"): Lee Gabriel/Daniel Schorer
  
  
• Tues, 6/13: Short Talk 3: RFeynman's ideas on what is real scientific learning: what ought to go on in a classroom, be in a book &c (e.g.,"O Americano Outre Vez" and "Judging Books by Their Covers" in SYJ and relevant Letters in WDYC, Part 1): Taufique Ahmad/__________________________
  
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• Thurs, 6/15: Short Talk 4: RFeynman's Adventures in Areas Outside Physics: Biology, Psychology, Art, Music and Anthropology ("A Map of the Cat", Always Trying to Escape", "But Is It Art?"; "O Americano Outra Vez!," "Bringing Culture to the Physicists", "Found Out in Paris", "Altered States" in SYJ, and "It's as Simple as One, Two, Three " and relevant "Letters" in WDYC): Jon Hauris/Mahdi Gharavi
  
  
• Short Talk 5: RFeynman's Investigations into the Conscious and Unconscious Mind and Antagonisms towards Modern Psychiatrists and Psychology ("Mee", "Always Trying to Escape", "Uncle Sam Doesn't Need You!", "Altered States" from SYJ and "It's as Simple as One Two Three" from WDYC): Adam Valenzuela/_____________________
  
  

Tues/Thurs, June 20th/22nd

• Tues, 6/21: Short Talk 6: Mr Feynman Goes to Washington: Why some NASA officialsare driven to delude themselves and mislead the public about the safety, cost and usefulness of shuttle flights ("Mr Feynman Goes to Washington" and "Appendix F" in WDYC): Matthew Jackson/Hieu Tran
  
  
• Tues, 6/21: Short Talk 7: A World of Pseudo- and Corrupt Science as Opposed to True Science: "Cargo Cult Learning" in SYJ and "The Value of Science" in WDYC: Erin O'Donohue/Jung Kim
  
  
• Thurs, 6/22: Short Talk 8: Space and Time in the 17th Century (Chapters 1-4 of Sobel's Longitude): ___________________/Sasha Mannion
  
  
• Thurs, 6/22: The class watches Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Tues/Thurs, June 27th/29th

• Tues, 6/27: Short Talk 9: Solutions to the Problem and young John Harrison goes to London (Chs 5-8 of Sobel's Longitude): Yong Yoon/____________________
  
  
• Tues, 6/27: Short Talk 10: The Instruments and the Ordeal (Chs 9-11 of Sobel's Longitude): Danny Marca/_____________________
  
  
• Tues, 6/27: Short Talk 11: The politics and aftermath (Chs 12-15 of Sobel's Longitude): Andrew Johnson/Mahdi Gharavi
  
  

Thurs, July 6th

• Thurs, 7/6: Short Talk 12: The Story from Sandy and Gloria Woodrow's point of view and what the police officers discover: how it all looks from an outsider's and unreliable narrator's point of view (LeCarre, The Constant Gardener, Chs 1-6): Kim Byung/__________________________
  
  
• Thurs, 7/6: Short Talk 13: Justin Quayle, his perspective, and how Tessa Quayle emerges from her emails (LeCarre CG, Chs 7-15): __________________________/_______________________
  
  
• Thurs, 7/6: Short Talk 14: The quest: compare the landscapes in the book and minor characters (Le Carre, CG, Chs 16-20): Jundao Liu/___________________________
  
  

Tues/Thurs, July 11th/13th

• Tues, 7/11: Short Talk 15: Does Justin re-find his soul, go mad, or both; and the pessimistic ending (LeCarre, CG, Chs 21-Epilogue): _______________________/Brian Rall
  
  
• Tues, 7/11: Short talk 16: The actual drug situation and LeCarre's outlook (The Politics and LeCarre's Career (on the two essays: Marcia Angell's "The Body Hunters," and Todd Hoffman, "The Constant Writer: LeCarre Spies a New Villain"): ___________________________/Cesar Diaz
  
  
• Tues, 7/11: Short talk 17: The doctor and patient's responsibilty (Ofri, Singular Intimacies, Chs Prologue through Chapter 5, plus "Common Ground," online): Fadia Rasheed/Laila Arouni
  
  
• Thurs, 7/13: Short Talk 18: When Medical or Technical Knowledge Doesn't Help (Ofri, Singular Intimacies, Chs 6-11): Jennifer Heenan/Laila Arouni
  
  
• Thurs, 7/13: Short Talk 19: The Limits of Technical or Scientific Medicine (Ofri, Singular Intimacies, Chapters 12-Epilogue): Thi-Thi Gastrock/Daniel Engidashet
  
  

Tues/Thurs, July 18th/20th

• Tues, 7/18: You are asked to see on your own Scion and UK Film, The Constant Gardener, directed by Fernando Meirelles, screenplay Jeffrey Caine (starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz).
  
  
• Thurs, 7/20: You are asked to see on your own the HBO film, Wit, directed by Mike Nichols, adapted from stageplay by Margaret Edson (starring Emma Thompson).
  
  
• Distance Learning Week: you can email me at Ellen2@JimandEllen.org Friday night, July 14th by email and again Friday through Sunday, July 21st to July 23rd You are asked to write a 3-page film review of one of the two films and bring it to class on Tuesday, July 25th.

Tues/Thurs, July 25th/27th

• Tues, 7/25. Short Talk 21: The Neglect of Vivian Bearing (on the film and stageplay, Wit): Shirin Maghsoudi/Cesar Diaz (?)
  
  
• Tues, 7/25: Short talk 22: The performances, use of contrast in the scenes and shots, and landscapes in the film, The Constant Gardener: Hakim Agassim/Sam Bangura