Posts by: mdimov

Visiting Writers Series: Joseph Campana

The News Report covered Joseph Campana’s campus visit on Friday September 27th as part of the creative writing program’s Visiting Writers Series. Joseph is a Renaissance poet, scholar and critic, and has been a Core instructor!               Joseph Campana is the author of “The Pain of Reformation: Spenser, Vulnerability, and […]

Machiavelli: still shocks 5 centuries later

CC201 has started off the semester by dabbling, among other things, in Machiavelli’s The Prince. Many were acquainted with the work from their high school years, and many were not – all admit it remains potent and relevant today. This post for The National Interest highlights the way in which The Prince still shocks today. A sample: […]

Maths & Science: popular until tasted

Relating to the frustratingly constant and reliable doubts that some students feel toward their majors, is an article from the Wall Street Journal discussing the choice of field. Their claim is that mathematics and science majors are relatively popular – until of course, students realize ‘what they are in for’. Here is an excerpt: The researchers […]

Quantum Computers – Animated!

Fair enough, the next big thing is the quantum computer… but what is it exactly? The exciting scientific details have descended into hearsay. Watch PHD Comics’ animated video below as clarification. Wikipedia tells us that: Practical and theoretical research continues, and many national governments and military funding agencies support quantum computing research to develop quantumcomputers […]

Curiosities Maps

There have been marauding gangs of ‘curiosities maps’ on the Core’s Facebook page – here are some highlights:                                                                           […]

The Onion: Tenth circle added to Dante’s Hell

The Onion rarely fails to deliver… this time it is their excellent twist on Dante’s Inferno which has caught the Core’s attention. All those who remember CC102’s Dantean struggles will appreciate this. Here is an extract: CITY OF DIS, NETHER HELL–After nearly four years of construction at an estimated cost of 750 million souls, Corpadverticus, […]

Montaigne on Film

A Youtube channel named Montaigne On Film has caught our attention! Their videos take an abstract approach to Montaigne’s ideas, which are studied in CC201 this semester. Check them out below: How our emotions discharge against false objects when lacking real ones Our emotions get carried away beyond us On sadness

Does Math actually exist?

Related to Prof. Roochnik’s CC101 lecture on Plato and maths, is a post from Gizmodo titled ‘Wait a Minute: Does Math actually exist?’. Here is a sample: PBS Idea Channel tackles the subject of whether math really exists or not. It’s a legitimate question because math, unlike physics or chemistry or biology, can’t be seen or smelled […]

Does just thinking about science trigger moral behavior?

A recent post from Scientific American discusses the sticky subject of science and its role in morality. The scientific method has spewed some seemingly immoral conclusions. How do deal with that? Here are some thoughts: Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara hypothesized that there is a deep-seated perception of science as a moral pursuit […]

Check out Chekhov: He will give you social skills

In a post for the NY Times, Pam Belluck describes a recent study on the effects of literature on social interaction: After reading literary fiction, as opposed to popular fiction or serious nonfiction, people performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception and emotional intelligence — skills that come in especially handy when you are trying to […]