Oxford Internet Institute Bellwether Lecture presented by Professor Dan Burk on Copyright, Culture, and Community in Virtual Worlds

We have accumulated an increasingly rich body of data concerning online communities, particularly those that share virtual environments. The on-line interactions of such communities are uniquely mediated by the audiovisual content of the software interface, which becomes a feature of shared culture. Much of this content is subject to copyright law, which confers on the copyright owner the legal right to prevent certain unauthorized uses of the content. Such exclusive rights impose a limiting factor on the development of communities that are situated around the interface content, as the rights, privileges, and exceptions associated with copyright generally tend to disregard the cultural significance of copyrighted content. Thus, the opportunity for on-line communities to legally access and manipulate the graphical elements on which their communities are built is frought with potential legal liability. Reconsideration of current copyright law would be required in order to accommodate the cohesion of on-line communities through cultural uses of copyrighted content.

Please visit http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/ for more information.
Please email events@oii.ox.ac.uk to register for the event.

2015 lies between the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth last year, and the 400th anniversary of his death next year. As celebrations of Shakespeare’s profundity and morality abound, James Sheldrake will be offering a timely exploration of the darker side of Shakespeare in performance, exploring stagings of the “universal” playwright in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and pre-Civil Rights America.

James is a freelance Shakespearean. Since finishing a Masters in Renaissance Literature at Oxford, he has taught at RADA, worked with Globe Education and podcasts regularly at www.sheldrakeonshakespeare.com. He is currently pitching a programme on Shakespeare and Evil, the subject of today’s lecture, to the BBC World Service.

Helen McCrory, in conversation with Edith Hall (KCL), about her performance in the National Theatre’s recent production of Medea (2014).
Free, all welcome, no booking required.

During a speech in 1957, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan declared “our people have never had it so good”. Now, more than half a century later, are we fundamentally any better off? Through discussion of technological advances, social changes, political reforms, and economic shocks and recessions, this panel will seek to question whether the world we currently live in is indeed a better place than it was in the 1950s.

Chaired by Professor Brian Nolan, Professor of Social Policy, the panel will consist of:

*Dr Max Roser, James Martin Fellow at The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School
*Dr Anders Sandberg, James Martin Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute
*Professor Robert Walker, Professor of Social Policy

A drinks reception will follow, all welcome.

A night of science comedy from Oxford’s funniest scientists. Highlights include the science of beer, the rise of the worm people and the end of the world. All profits go to TASTE, a small charity providing practical science lessons to schools in rural Uganda. The line up includes:
Dr Joanna Bagniewska, Zoologist and International Famelab superstar
Rob Shalloo, Mad laser scientist
Dr Alison Woollard, Geneticist and 2013 Royal Institution Christmas lecturer
Fran Day, Theoretical physicist playing with imaginary particles

Find out more about TASTE at http://www.tasteforscience.org.

The presenter will introduce different crowdfunding platforms which serve different purposes, for instance education-related initiatives, charitable works, new products and start-ups.

Presenter: Shan Huang, D.Phil student at Department of Education, Founder of OxFund

This is a joint event between the Oxford Martin School and The Oxford International Relations Society (IRSoC)

The lecture is free and open to all and will be followed by a drinks reception for members of IRSoc, membership is available on the night.

Major General (Rtd) Jonathan Shaw CB CBE has 32 years experience in the UK Army during which time he commanded on operations at every rank up to two star. He has gained extensive operational experience in the Falklands, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and has a profound knowledge of the workings of Whitehall and international strategy. Major Shaw is the former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff and Colonel Commandant of The Parachute Regiment (Director of the Special Forces).

As Assistant Chief of Defence Staff, his responsibilities included international security policy, global issues and he headed the Defence Cyber Security Programme.

Graduating from Oxford having read Politics and Philosophy, he joined the Parachute Regiment in 1981 and retired as its Colonel Commandant in 2012. Since leaving the Ministry of Defence in 2012, Major General Jonathan Shaw holds consulting roles at three security companies, Optima Group UK, Certivox, and Tempest Group.

Part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines. Free, all welcome – no booking required. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:45, with discussion from 13:00 to 13:45.

Anna Marmodoro (Fellow in Philosophy, Corpus Christi, University of Oxford) will discuss her book Aristotle on Perceiving Objects with:

Ophelia Deroy (Associate Director, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study and Senior Researcher, Centre for the Study of the Senses)
Richard Sorabji (Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, King’s College London)
Rowland Stout (Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Oxford)

About the book

How can we explain the structure of perceptual experience? What is it that we perceive? How is it that we perceive objects and not disjoint arrays of properties? By which sense or senses do we perceive objects? Are our five senses sufficient for the perception of objects?

Aristotle investigated these questions by means of the metaphysical modeling of the unity of the perceptual faculty and the unity of experiential content. His account remains fruitful-but also challenging-even for contemporary philosophy.

This book offers a reconstruction of the six metaphysical models Aristotle offered to address these and related questions, focusing on their metaphysical underpinning in his theory of causal powers. By doing so, the book brings out what is especially valuable and even surprising about the topic: the core principles of Aristotle’s metaphysics of perception are fundamentally different from those of his metaphysics of substance. Yet, for precisely this reason, his models of perceptual content are unexplored territory. This book breaks new ground in offering an understanding of Aristotle’s metaphysics of the content of perceptual experience and of the composition of the perceptual faculty.

The Annual Zola Skweyiya Lecture

As adults can tell us when they are feeling pain we can often simply ask them whether pain medication is working. As babies cannot talk, we need to rely on other measures to find out whether they are feeling pain. It is not always possible to know whether a baby is in pain by looking at their behaviour. Join us to hear Dr Rebeccah Slater, discuss whether the use of modern brain imaging techniques can tell us whether a baby can feel pain. This is particularly important for babies admitted to intensive care after birth who may need lots of medical interventions to be performed everyday as part of their essential medical care.

twitter @oxfordscibar
facebook ‘British Science Association Oxfordshire Branch

Mankind’s strategies of mitigation and adaptation may well turn out to be too weak and too late to avoid dangerous climate change later this century. So might we need to try a different route – geoengineering? We could for example reflect more solar radiation back into space by making more reflective clouds; or we could absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and bury it underground, to diminish the “greenhouse” effect.

Would such technologies work, and would there be side effects? And who would decide whether to do this, and when, if ever, to stop. These are just some of the questions raised by the idea of engineering the climate – could we, and should we?

Join in on Twitter #2015climate

To the Victorians, the newly understood sciences were the most exciting subjects of the century, and they wanted their children to learn about this wonderful new world, too.

Writers from Hans Christian Andersen to Edith Nesbit began to capture the excitement of the latest scientific discoveries. In this fascinating new book, Melanie Keene introduces and analyses these Victorian scientific fairy tales, from nursery classics such as The Water-Babies, to the little-known Wonderland of Evolution. In doing so, she shows how authors reconciled factual accuracy with truly fantastical narratives, to entice young readers into learning their secrets by converting scientific fact into quirky, charming, and imaginative fairy-tales.

This event will be followed by a book signing

Catherine Gallagher from Berkeley will give a talk on A Tale of Two Cities and the History of Modern Revenge as part of the Victorian Research Seminar series at the Faculty of English Language & Literature

The inaugural Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture, entitled “Science as Revolution”, will be at 5pm on Friday 15th May, in the main Lecture Theatre, L1, at the Mathematical Institute in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

It will be given by Professor Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society and Nobel Laureate.

The event is free but booking is required – please complete the booking form: http://bit.ly/1y5OLov

Marcus’ books include Croatia, a Nation Born in War and The Last of the Celts (Yale University Press). The most recent is on Victorian Balkan explorer Edith Durham. In the 1990s he was Balkan correspondent for The Independent and later its assistant foreign editor. He now edits the web portal Balkan Insight and is a part-time leader-writer for The Independent. He will talk about his book on Matthias Corvinus’ life and passion for books.

Maarten De Pourcq (Radboud University Nijmegen) will present a paper on the links between Classics, the First World War, and the Rise of Flemish Culture.
Followed by Q & A and refreshments.
Free, all welcome. no booking required.

As former European Commissioner for Climate Action and as host Minister of the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Connie Hedegaard has been at the sharp end of global agreements. While the Copenhagen talks ended with a breakthrough recognition of the scientific case for restraining temperature rises to no more than 2°C, the accord failed to achieve commitments to reducing emissions. The outcome frustrated many and Hedegaard has subsequently described the eight-draft, 115-country process as a ‘nightmare’. Hedegaard refused to give up.

Two years later in Durban, she made a stand against fierce opposition to push through a timetable for new negotiations, this time designed to create a global pact on emissions reductions. The 2015 UNFCCC in Paris is the culmination of that timetable and the global pact, if it is achieved, will come into force in 2020. Presiding over the European 2030 Climate and Energy Framework, which commits to a 40% reduction in emissions, Hedegaard said: “We have sent a strong signal to the rest of the world. We have now done our homework and now it’s up to other big economies to do theirs”.

Having seen the election results unfold, the topic of political strategy and communication is as relevant as ever in highlighting the ways in which politicians and organisations seek to influence public opinion and shape political debate. The Oxford Forum welcomes you to the Political Strategy Panel Debate to discuss the challenges faced, and the solutions provided, in devising an effective communication strategy.
This event will be co-hosted with the PPE society and the Journal of Political and Constitutional Studies.
Following the debate, we will be having dinner with the speakers in the private dining room of Christ Church. Tickets are available to purchase at
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/oxford-forums-political-strategy-speaker-dinner-tickets-16819258856
It is an unmissable opportunity to engage more directly with the speakers!

Can we develop transport technologies that are less harmful to the planet? Professor David Banister, Director of the Transport Studies Unit, and Professor Malcom McCulloch, head of the Electrical Power Group will present research into low carbon technologies, and examine the issues surrounding their implementation.

Join in on Twitter #2015climate

Adam Divák and Tamás Nagy from Synetiq Ltd.

Ádám Divák (CTO) and Tamás Nagy (lead researcher) will talk about Synetiq, a Hungarian start-up providing neuromarketing research and emotional insights for media companies. They will show how biometric sensory information is turned into recommendations for films and TV adverts, how infostructure allows real-time monitoring of affective reactions, and how they integrate data recording with processing and analysis.

Entry is via the BabyLab entrance: http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/research/oxford-babylab/your-visit-to-the-babylab/how-to-find-us

Delivered by Astor Visiting Lecturer Dr Mary McKay, NYU

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
Carl Heneghan is Director of the Centre of Evidence-Based Medicine, a General Practitioner and Senior Tutor of Kellogg College.
Carl has been the author and principal investigator on the Cochrane reviews on Tamiflu in adults and children and for 6 years he has worked alongside an international Cochrane group to obtain the missing unpublished evidence. This work has proved controversial in questioning the £500 million spent by the UK stockpiling the drug and has led to parliamentary appearances and substantial news coverage. The talk will detail the journey to obtain the evidence, the new methods including the use of clinical study reports and the effect of the drug once all the evidence became available.

This book talk is a joint event between the Oxford Martin School and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict

This book talk will see author Chris Woods discuss his new book Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars, an exposé of the little-understood yet extremely significant world of drone warfare. His work is based on insights from many of those intimately involved – the pilots and analysts, US and UK intelligence officials, Special Forces and Pentagon commanders.

Chris Woods is an award-wining investigative journalist who specialises in conflict and national security issues. During almost a decade at the BBC, he was a senior producer for both Panorama and Newsnight.

The event will be introduced by Dr Alex Leveringhaus, a James Martin Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and lead author of the recent Oxford Martin Policy Paper Robo-Wars: The Regulation of Robotic Weapons.

The book talk will be followed by a book signing, all welcome

This book talk will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdE9AJrZ_Fk

How can the human economy become more sustainable in the face of a rapidly changing climate? Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Economics of Sustainability programme at The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, will discuss new ways of assessing climate and economic risk, how to stimulate innovation in greener technologies, and the impacts of climate policy on the economy.

Join in on Twitter #2015climate

The next ‘Surgical Grand Rounds’ presentation at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences will be given by Professor Fergus Gleeson, Professor of Radiology and Consultant Radiologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Genomic variation, through its effect on gene structure and expression, plays an important role in disease predisposition, biology and clinical response to therapy.

In my presentation, I will provide examples of ongoing projects that emerged from large-scale genome studies of cancer that are pertinent to understanding the role of both classes of cancer mutations (inherited and acquired) in the context of early phases of cancer development and potential approaches to use this knowledge in tailored screening interventions. I will provide examples of:

Models to determine colorectal cancer risk using common genetic risk markers and optimise screening strategies;
Deep-sequencing of acute myeloid leukemia samples used to trace the initiating mutations to infer leukemia and possible applications that will enable diagnosis of pre-leukemic states, i.e. prior to overt leukemia;
Cancer mutation profiles that can better distinguish aggressive and indolent forms of prostate cancer at the time of first diagnosis to reduce the overtreatment of the disease in patients with more benign forms.

In each example, I will also pose biological questions that arose in these studies, and avenues for further work to obtain a greater understanding of early cancers and transform this knowledge into tailored interventions based on the profile of the tumour and the patient.

Join the Weidenfeld Scholars for an engaging debate on economic inequality moderated by Jon Snow. We will be engaging with what drives inequality, what economic, social and political impact inequality has and what policymakers ought to do to respond.

Format: The ‘Intelligence Squared’ debate format (Two speakers debating for, and two speakers debating against the motion).

Speakers:
For the motion:
Josh Spero (Editor, Spear’s Magazine)
Andreas Wesemann (Financial Services Advisory Group, Ashcombe Advisors).

Against the motion:
Vicky Pryce (Chief Economic Advisor, CEBR)
Alan Gray (Chairman, London Economics).

Moderator: Jon Snow.

Venue of debate: Danson Room, at Trinity College.
Time: 5 to 6.30pm, followed by drinks.