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A Random Walk with Serendip

Randomness is cool and interesting... and randomness can be important too, from biological diversity to artistic innovation. Here, have fun with 10 random pages from Serendip. Does "mixing" them together create some new ideas? Feel free to return another day to find another random walk, or play Chance in Life and the World for a new perspective on randomness and order.

When the brain is exposed to different chemicals, its behavior and action can change. What comes to mind when one usually thinks of chemicals is alcohol and drugs. We all expect exogenous chemicals to cause a change in the brain. What we might not expect, is that simply thinking can change the bath of chemicals our brain is exposed to. In particular, thinking of God.

 

For years, people have...

Here are some resources to inform you about Titagya Schools, education in Ghana, and Ghanaian history.
 
Dagbani video (Note, we will practice these introductory phrases in the language of Dalun, though the pronunciation varies slightly in some respects from the video, made in a different locale. This video by a Volunteer for Sight volunteer also contains basic introductory material about the North.) ...

I'm an absurdist. I'm also a musician and my stage/performance name is The Fenceless. The photo I've chosen illustrates a phrase that inspired me to choose this stage name, which goes along with my personalised definition of absurdism, in which I believe anything is meaningless, so therefore anybody has every right to assign anything any function or meaning they choose. I took this photo while on a trip to Northern Kenya two years ago, and it is of a chicken perched comfortably on a fence...

Gross makes an observation in the introduction of Colored Amazons that's stuck with me as I read about these cases and their history.  "For most [of these women], their criminal records serve as the only documentation of their lives." (pg.4-5)  It strikes me in a way that I cannot shake.  We, after all, live in a time where we are constantly anxious of the legacy we may leave--may it be by the "greatness" or change we want to bestow on the world, or even by becoming paranoid...

I spent my memo thinking a lot about niches and privacy and how the two were connected. One of the things that really inspired that was considering my own niche. Here's the representation I did of it on Friday! (see also my response to Anne's question about interim spaces as niches for an explanation of this particular aspect of my niche).

 Evaluation essay

I admit here that I chose to take this course because it was cross-listed with Computer Science and English, my major choices. I somehow missed but did assume the Gender Studies aspect. As it turned out, that was more important than I expected.

I can see why discussion is becoming a problem in academia today, which I guess links this concern to Hayles and her advice against overvaluing closed off peer-review. There is so much insularity and focus...

Meme: A cultural element or behavioural trait whose transmission and consequent persistence in a population, although occurring by non-genetic means (esp. imitation), is considered as analogous to the inheritance of a gene.

-Oxford English Dictionary

The first time I was exposed to the idea of memes was in Daniel Dennett’s book, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, which I read for a college class on evolution. Dennett gave several examples of things he considered memes...

The plan that I have for the rest of the semester includes looking at autobiographies of people under different circumstances and people in different periods in time. I would also like to look into documentaries that reflect either the life of a whole population or the experience of one person. I would be interested in focusing on either feminist film documentaries or conflict zone documentaries. The conflict zone documentaries usually involve a lot of emotion and can be partially biased,...

 For my project I was really interested in the quote by a youtuber Tyler Oakley: “Just because I make videos doesn’t mean that I have to make the same kind of video every time…people that make videos are not just one dimensional who produce one thing for one type of person every single time.” (Tyler Oakley, Save the Drama Fo’ Yo’ Mama). For my project, I wanted to experience representing myself on youtube.

Below are two videos. For my Visual Anthropology class, the...

a digital humanities talk on Thursday!

"Geography and the Humanities: Applications of Digital Cartography to Digital Humanities"

Presented by Robert Cheetham & Deb Bover of Azavea

Location: Haverford College -Magill Library -Philips Wing

Date: January 26, 2012

Time: Tea-4:15pm | Talk- 4:30pm

Please see the poster attached for more info.