Tech talent

Cornell and the New York City Economic Development Corp. will host a Tech Talent Draft, a career fair aimed at bolstering the tech industry in New York City, Sept. 28, 2-6 p.m. in Sage Hall Atrium.

A panel discussion on New York's tech sector follows from 6 to 7 p.m. in Sage Hall B9. Seven CEOs and CTOs from the city's tech companies will provide career advice and information on daily life at a New York City startup.

The events are part of Startup Weekend, an entrepreneur boot camp at Cornell Sept. 28-30.

Information: http://cornell.startupweekend.org, http://www.nycedc.com/tech-talent-draft-opportunity

In praise of Norton

A conference, "Liberty's Daughters and Sons: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Beth Norton," Sept. 28-29 at the A.D. White House, will honor the Cornell historian with sessions inspired by aspects of Norton's scholarship and teaching. Norton is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History and a Weiss Presidential Fellow.

The panels will include "Mary Beth Norton and the Changing Shape of American History"; a session on witchcraft research, "There's More to Say About Salem"; presentations on emerging research inspired by Norton's scholarship; a roundtable discussion with friends, students and colleagues; reflections and a response by Norton herself.

No registration is required; those interested in attending should contact the organizers, Molly Warsh at warsh@pitt.edu or Susanah Shaw Romney at ssromney@gmail.com . Cornell sponsors include the Department of History and the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

Information: http://celebratingmbn.wordpress.com.

Folk legend

Veteran musical storyteller Jack Williams performs on WVBR's "Bound for Glory" Sept. 30, 8-11 p.m. in Anabel Taylor Café. Free.

Over his 54-year career, Williams has been lauded for his songwriting and playing; he's released nine albums and a DVD and led numerous workshops for folk musicians. His songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, David Clayton-Thomas, Cindy Mangsen, Ronny Cox, and Lowen and Navarro; as a guitarist he has accompanied Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow '59, Mickey Newbury and Harry Nilsson.

Now in its 46th year, "Bound for Glory" is North America's longest-running live folk concert broadcast, with founding host Phil Shapiro, M.A. '69. It is broadcast live from Anabel Taylor Hall, Sunday nights on WVBR-FM, 93.5 and 105.5, and at http://www.wvbr.com.

Political ideas

Historian Timothy Snyder will present a foreign policy lecture, "Thinking the Twentieth Century," Oct. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. Free and open to the public. Snyder's new book of the same title (with co-author Tony Judt) is a thematic history of political ideas and intellectuals in politics.

Snyder is the Housum Professor of History at Yale University, where he teaches modern East European political history. He is the author of five award-winning books, including "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin," a history of Nazi and Soviet mass killings in the lands between Berlin and Moscow. The book won the Leipzig Prize for European Understanding and has been translated into more than 20 languages.

The lecture is organized by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies as part of its Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series. Co-sponsored by the Cornell Institute for European Studies. Information: http://einaudi.cornell.edu/node/11434.

Revolutionizing health care

Nadim Mahmud and Josh Nesbit, two of the founders of Medic Mobile, will present "From Ideas to Action: Technology and Global Health," Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Kennedy Hall's Call Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

Medic Mobile provides health care information services and assistance to clinics and health workers in rural Africa, Central America and South Asia. In addition to software applications, the organization's networking services include supporting community health workers in the field, coordinating services and referrals, facilitating data collection and logistics and mapping health services.

Medic Mobile's story is featured in the book "Hearts on Fire" by Jill Iscol and Peter Cookson. Jill Iscol will sign books after the lecture.

The lecture is presented by the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service and the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Speaker Series.

Populist history

"Conquest 1453," the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, will be shown Oct. 1 at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Free.

The Hollywood-style epic, glamorizing the life of Sultan Mehmed II and his conquest of Constantinople in 1453, is replete with inaccuracies and mythological depictions of historical figures as heroes and villains. The film offers the chance "to reflect on the seemingly innocuous popular depiction of historical events in light of contemporary politics within and without Turkey," says Mostafa Minawi, assistant professor of Middle Eastern history and the event's organizer.

Clarke Lecture

Robert Dohner, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, will deliver the Law School's annual Clarke Lecture, Oct. 2, 12:20 p.m. in Myron Taylor Hall G85. Free.

Dohner's topic is "U.S. Policy and the Changing Economic and Financial Landscape of East Asia." Lunch will be served; RSVP to dkh25@cornell.edu.

Dohner is responsible for the region extending from Pakistan and India through China, Korea, and Japan. Before joining the Treasury, he was a senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and a senior economic adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs. He also taught economics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and has worked at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

YouTube film

Mike Solomon '00, one of the creators of YouTube, will speak about his career and the evolution of the video sharing website at a screening of the 2011 YouTube user-generated film "Life in a Day," Oct. 3 at 7:15 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre.

A former Cornell Cinema student employee, Solomon is a software engineer who built the financial system for PayPal and the user-review site Yelp before being recruited by friends to help build YouTube. The "Life in a Day" project began in July 2010 with a call for video submissions from users showing what transpired in their lives over the last 24 hours. The site received 80,000 videos from 192 countries, the best of which became part of the finished film.

Also at Cornell Cinema: The landmark 1966 film "Battle of Algiers" introduced by film professor Sabine Haenni, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m., commemorating the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence from imperialist France. Also screening Oct. 5 at 7:15 p.m.