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Revolutions occur when a critical mass of people come together to make specific demands upon their government. They invariably involve an increase in popular involvement in the political process. One of the central questions concerning 1848, a year in which almost every major European nation faced a revolutionary upsurge, is why England did not have its own revolution despite the existence of social tensions. Two principal reasons account ...more
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The bubonic plague is the measure by which succeeding epidemics have long been measured. Its extreme virulence, horrible symptoms, and indiscriminate victim profile all contributed to making plague the archetypical worst-case scenario. For these same reasons, the plague is also an ideal test case for the thesis that epidemic diseases play a major role in shaping human history. Over the course of its three pandemics, the plague had major ec...more
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Wired for Speech: Voice Interactions with People and Computers
Stanford / Engineering (Except Electrical)
August 7, 2008 presentation by Clifford Nass for the Stanford University Office of Science Outreach's Summer Science Lecture Series. In this lecture, Clifford Nass describes how the human brain and body are "wired" for speech: The sound of a voice, whether from a person or machine, causes us to respond as we respond to actual people and to behave as we could in any social situation. In addition, Nass will discuss the speech interactions b...more
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April 11, 2008 lecture by Gwendolyn Floyd and Joshua Kauffman for the Stanford University Human Computer Interaction Seminar (CS547). This lecture shares REGIONAL's recent in-field Cuban research that spans the socio-technological, the political, and the top-secret. It reveals how their research led to the design of a simple and affordable digital device that would potentially accelerate Cuban social change. It also discusses how an under...more
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April 4, 2008 lecture by Beth Noveck for the Stanford University Human Computer Interaction Seminar (CS547). In this lecture, Beth Noveck discusses why current political institutions have changed little in response to Web 2.0. She explores the role of visual and social interfaces in producing better democracy and talk about the progress of the Peer-to-Patent project. Overall, the talk focuses on how both law and technology might be better...more
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Professor Shapiro explains the format and structure of the class during this opening session. He reviews the syllabus, and asks the central question of the course: What makes a government legitimate? He briefly explains the five ways to answer this question that he will focus on throughout the semester. The first three traditions are those of the Enlightenment: utilitarianism, Marxism, and social contract theory. The fourth and fifth overa...more
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Victorian' came in the twentieth century to stand for sexual repression and social convention. Personal life was governed by complex and rigid rules of behaviour. Like other aspects of Victorian culture this began to break down in the fin-de-siécle. Yet recent research, discussed in this lecture, has undermined this rather simplistic picture and begun to explore some of the contradictions and complexities of Victorian attitudes to marri...more
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Knowledge of historical context is crucial to understanding the New Testament. Alexander the Great, in his conquests, spread Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean world. This would shape the structure of city-states, which would share characteristically Greek institutions, such as the gymnasium and the boule. This would also give rise to religious syncretism, that is, the mixing of different religions. The rise of the Romans would con...more
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If there was any single belief that characterized the Victorian era it was Christian belief. Religion pervaded social and political life to an extent almost unimaginable today. Yet this was also an age of major scientific progress and discovery. Ranging from Darwin's Origin of Species to Strauss's Life of Jesus, new techniques and approaches undermined faith in the literal truth of the Bible. This lecture looks at the relationship betwe...more
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Kelley talks about how the observation phase is the most overlooked part of the development process. Kelley hires social scientists to watch people complete tasks instead of asking them usability questions. He prefers to see them as customers instead of users and strongly believes that customer satisfaction comes with understanding their values. He gives examples of how his team will observe a customer in their usual environment instead of...more
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1 Corinthian and 2 Corinthians give us several snapshots of the development of the Corinthian church and Paul's relationship to it. In 1 Corinthians Paul is concerned with controversies that have been dividing the church, most probably along social status lines. The issues causing controversy include whether one should eat food sacrificed to idols, how one ought to conduct oneself sexually, the practice of speaking in tongues, and how Chri...more
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Because drinking is such an integral part of French culture, alcohol abuse has been historically ignored. Although there have been celebrated attempts to address this problem, such as Zola's L'Assomoir, it is only in the past five or ten years that the government has seriously tried to tackle the problem of alcoholism. One of the major ways in which alcohol is embedded in the cultural identity of the country is the close association of cer...more
