Lafayette has been selected to offer a Tournees Festival for the second consecutive year. Funded through a grant from the French Cultural Services (FACE), the festival is part of an initiative to help bring contemporary French cinema to college and university campuses across the US. This year's selection of films includes an array of genres from documentaries to dramas, co-productions that represent the Francophone world, as well as films by directors ranging from unique new voices to established figures.

A short discussion will follow each screening. For the full list of dates and places, go to: http://sites.lafayette.edu/tourneesfilmfest/2009-schedule/

An exhibition marking the 150th anniversary, on November 24, of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species," is comprised of three related sections. In "A Habit of Deciding Influence" are 18 photographs of Darwin’s pigeon specimens at the Natural History of London/Tring. Darwin took up the study of domesticated pigeons in 1855 and his observations of artificial selection in pigeon breeding was invaluable to his understanding of the way species change in natural environments. 2)"Coop" is a mixed-media installation based on Darwin’s five-sided pigeon coop. 3)"Frameworks of Absence: The Extinct Birds of John James Audubon” includes 10 altered prints from “Birds of America.”

Learn more about your benefits - insurance representatives, local vendors, food, giveaways and raffle.

The Kirby Government & Law Society is sponsoring a debate between the College Democrats, College Republicans and College Libertarians. They will be debating the important issue of foreign policy in the US. At the conclusion of the debate, a panel of professors will announce the winner.

Lunch will be served.

Third in a series of CITLS/CEP-sponsored faculty conversations on the problems of and methods for dealing with teaching required courses in our disciplines. Profs. Germanoski and Shaw will be our "conversation starters." Faculty and staff from all divisions are encouraged to attend. Feel free to bring a lunch. Beverages and dessert will be provided.

Local author David Colley talks about his book "Decision at Strasbourg" in commemoration of Veterans Day. Colley's book is the story of the Sixth Army Group in France and Gen. Jacob Devers' plan to cross the Rhine in November 1944. Aborted by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the plan might have avoided the Battle of the Bulge.

Study of Fish Locomotion Using Computer Simulation

Presenter: Khine Lin'11 and Bidur Dahal'12
Advisor: Prof. Chun Wai Liew (Dept of Computer Science) & Prof. Robert Root (Dept of Mathematics)

(Lunch Provided)

Evolutionary biologists have been facing problems in determining the paths of evolution due to missing or inconclusive fossil records. In the absence of conclusive data, computer simulations can be a very powerful tool in hypothesizing and testing different ideas about possible evolutionary pathways. Our research aims to study the likelihood of different alternative evolutionary pathways using digital animals. In particular, we are studying the evolution of backbone in fish. We are using a digital fish to determine the advantages that a segmented backbone provides in comparison to a notochord...

Sponsored by Lafayette Dean of The College, the Department of Computer Science and the National Science Foundation

Who is running for Student Government this year and what are their plans? Come find out at our "Meet the Candidates" session. You'll get a chance to ask them questions and hear what they have to say.

The artwork in this exhibition represents collaboration between students and faculty in the art and computer science departments through the Emergent Patterns project, exploring the complex patterns and processes that can emerge in visual structures. They worked with software programs to produce different forms of recurring, natural patterns. These organic structures and patterns were then combined in layers of transparent surfaces. The multiple-layered works allow the viewer to see the evolutionary track back through the surface to the less complex visual systems from which the final image emerges.

Headed by Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II Professor of Art, and Chun Wai Liew, associate professor, head of computer science. Student participants included Rhodes Baker '10, computer science; Imogen Cain '12, art; Long Ho '10, mathematics and computer science; Khine Lin '11, pursing a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering and an A.B. in mathematics; and Scott Lyttle '10, art.

Digital Initiatives Librarian Eric Luhrs and History Professor Paul Barclay will outline the challenges of building a digital image database from Skillman Library's Special Collections--the Gerald and Rella Warner East Asian Collection--and discuss the Warner Collection's growing potential for teaching and scholarship.

Alumni share their experiences in environmentally-focused and conscious careers, organizations, and industries.

SPONSORED BY CAREER SERVICES

Sign up in Career Services, 201 Hogg Hall

Jeanne, a magistrate, must sort out and prepare for trial a complex case of misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds implicating the president of an important industrial firm. As her investigation progresses, she realizes that her power is great: the more she delves into secrets, the more her means of applying pressure increase. Politicians and businessmen are scheming together, and Jeanne thinks it's high time somebody stepped in to clean up this mess. All the high level associates of the company are summoned into her office and all are scandalized by her accusations and her lack of respect for their social positions. As she unravels the truth, Jeanne's private life is jeopardized, both physically and psychologically.
The Elf Aquitaine scandal that rocked France in the 1990s inspired Comedy of Power. At the time, the scandal exposed extensive corruption in France's giant state-owned gas company.

Lecture by Professor Robert Segal, Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland

Sponsored by Lafayette's Department of Religious Studies, through the Lyman Coleman Fund

Segal, an internationally respected authority on the history and theory of myth, will trace the changing conceptions of myth over the past few centuries. Where our forebears explained the physical world mythically, we now explain the physical world scientifically. But then a shift occurred, and myth came to be seen as almost anything but the counterpart to science. Either myth was no longer about the physical world, or the function of myth was no longer explanatory. Myth was largely removed from the physical world altogether. Having presented these opposing conceptions of myth, this lecture will take the case of Hollywood stars to argue that they are mythic figures and figures with the power to change the physical world.

Join the Lafayette Christian Fellowship as we address and discuss hard questions. This week, we're examining why a good God would allow suffering and evil in the world. Discussion, fellowship, and snacks to follow.