Pamplin Society of Fellows

The Economic Crisis: What Next? ~ 7:00 PM, February 18th, 2009 in the Pamplin Room

Featuring Professors of Economics Marty Hart-Landsberg and Harry Schleef

Angry at Wall Street?  Hate the bailout?  Wish we could all go back to hunting and gathering?  Come find out what exactly happened and talk about where we should go from here.  The evening will begin with an overview of the crisis by Drs. Hart-Landsberg and Schleef, then open to a discussion about the economy, the bailout, and everything else that comes up.

Don’t know a CDO from a CD-ROM?  These articles should help you on your path to enlightenment:

• Dr. Hart-Landsberg’s Recession Watch
• The Motley Fool ~ Why Should I Invest?
• Wikipedia ~ Liquidity Trap
• Paul Krugman at the Start of the Recession
• Paul Krugman ~ The Consumer Spending Paradox
• Becker and Murphy ~ Stimulus 2.0
• Wachovia ~ Buy American? (.pdf)
• Tyler Cowen on the Crisis
• John Taylor ~ Government Intervention Won’t Solve the Crisis
• Tyler Cowen on Moral Hazard
• Dane Stangler ~ Misinterpreting Keynes

“The Uncanny Physics of Superheroes”
James Kakalios
Tuesday, March 16, 2010    7:30pm
Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber

James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, will be this year’s Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Society of Fellows Distinguished Visiting Scholar.

In his lecture, Kakalios will explore the applications of physics on superheroes, the subject of a course he teaches at the University of Minnesota. This class covers everything from Isaac Newton to the transistor, using only examples from superhero comic books. Kakalios says superhero comic books get their science right more often than one might expect. Anyone who has wondered how strong you would have to be to “leap a tall building in a single bound” should attend this lecture!

About the speaker:

James Kakalios received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1985. He is the Taylor Distinguished Professor in the University of Minnesota’s School of Physics and Astronomy. In 2007, in response to a request from the National Academy of Sciences, Kakalios served as the science consultant for the Warner Bros. superhero film Watchmen. In 2009 he filmed a short video on the Science of Watchmen which was viewed over 1.5 million times times in the first few months of being posted on YouTube.

His research interests include nanocrystalline and amorphous semiconductiors, pattern formation in sandpiles and fluctuation phenomena in neurological systems. He has been reading comic books longer that he has been studying physics.

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This lecture is free and open to the public.

Email questions to awalcott@lclark.edu