From Opportunity to Status

[Excerpt] When Ronald Knox, at the age of four, was asked what he did for his insomnia, he replied, I lie awake and think about the past. I suspect that even the future celebrated biblical scholar did not, at the age of four, have much of a past to think about-- unless, with Plato and Wordsworth, we believe that a child is not born in entire forgetfulness, but comes trailing clouds of glory. In my own case when I lie awake and think about the past, I do have a relatively long past to think about--it is thirty-eight years since I began my teaching career, and almost thirty years since I came to Cornell

Several Essays and Statements

Milton Konvitz (Ph.D. \u2733) embodied the spirit of Cornell University. An authority on civil rights and human rights, and constitutional and labor law, he served on the Cornell faculty for 27 years, holding dual appointments at the Law School and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. This section features essays and statements by Milton R. Konvitz: Closing Remarks at the End of the American Ideals Course; Change and Tradition--A Letter to David Daiches; Liberal and Illiberal Education; Why One Professor Changed His Voice; and Of Exile and Double Consciousness: A Reply to Max Beloff

Using tracked mobile sensors to make maps of environmental effects

We present a study the results of a study of environmental carbon monoxide pollution that has uses a set of tracked, mobile pollution sensors. The motivating concept is that we will be able to map pollution and other properties of the real world a fine scale if we can deploy a large set of sensors with members of the general public who would carry them as they go about their normal everyday activities. To prove the viability of this concept we have to demonstrate that data gathered in an ad-hoc manner is reliable enough in order to allow us to build interesting geo-temporal maps. We present a trial using a small number of global positioning system-tracked CO sensors. From analysis of raw GPS logs we find some well-known spatial and temporal properties of CO. Further, by processing the GPS logs we can find fine-grained variations in pollution readings such as when crossing roads. We then discuss the space of possibilities that may be enabled by tracking sensors around the urban environment – both in getting at personal experience of properties of the environment and in making summative maps to predict future conditions. Although we present a study of CO, the techniques will be applicable to other environmental properties such as radio signal strength, noise, weather and so on

The 'psychic pet' phenomenon: a reply to Rupert Sheldrake

Original article can be found at: http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/Rupert Sheldrake (1999a) has published a note in the previous issue of the Journal criticising our research into the ‘psychic pet’ phenomenon. Certain points arising from this criticism have also been included in his recent book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (Sheldrake 1999b). This paper outlines why we believe his criticisms to be invalid.Peer reviewe

Integration effects of pylon geometry on a high-wing transport airplane

An investigation was conducted in the Langley 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel to determine the installation effects of a series of pylons that had differing cross-sectional shapes on the pressure distributions and aerodynamic characteristics of a 1/24-scale high wing transport. The tests were conducted at Mach numbers at 0.70 and 0.80 at angles of attack from -3 degrees to 4 degrees with the pylons tested at various toe angles between 5 degrees inboard and 5 degrees outboard. Results of this study indicate that the installed drag was lowest for the pylons with a compression pylon type design which kept the flow under the wing in the pylon/wing junction comparable to the clean wing velocities