Splash Biography

What if, in hypothetical two-way races during the 2008 primaries, Clinton beats Obama, Obama beats Edwards, and Edwards beats Clinton? Is this even possible? (Yes.) What would then be a fair way to decide the "best" preferences of Democrats? Whether it's a T-shirt design contest or a presidential election, voting converts preferences of individuals into a single preference for the community. We'll discuss Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which states that there is no "perfect" way of doing so. We'll demonstrate a few of the mind-boggling flaws that every voting method must have.

Chinese writing is unique among the world's major languages in that it uses thousands of characters as opposed to an alphabet with a few dozen letters. We will learn some basic characters, their organization and structure, the distinction between traditional and simplified scripts, calligraphic styles and typographical fonts, how new characters are created, how Chinese characters are used in the modern Japanese and Korean languages, and how Chinese is typed electronically. I will also discuss Chinese dialects and why the Chinese language did not (and will likely never) switch to an alphabetical writing system. About one-third of class time will be devoted to practicing writing characters by hand.

What if, in hypothetical two-way races during the 2008 primaries, Clinton beats Obama, Obama beats Edwards, and Edwards beats Clinton? Is this even possible? (Yes.) What would then be a fair way to decide the "best" preferences of Democrats? Whether it's a T-shirt design contest or a presidential election, voting converts preferences of individuals into a single preference for the community. We'll discuss Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which states that there is no "perfect" way of doing so. We'll demonstrate a few of the mind-boggling flaws that every voting method must have.

Chinese writing is unique among the world's major languages in that it uses thousands of characters as opposed to an alphabet with a few dozen letters. We will learn some basic characters, their organization and structure, the distinction between traditional and simplified scripts, calligraphic styles and typographical fonts, how new characters are created, how Chinese characters are used in the modern Japanese and Korean languages, and how Chinese is typed electronically. I will also discuss Chinese dialects and why the Chinese language did not (and will likely never) switch to an alphabetical writing system. About one-third of class time will be devoted to practicing writing characters by hand.