A project to temporarily wipe out ad space on the street-- what would be its effect? Remove all ads for a week and note the effect. I find it a bit daunting to imagine.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free
Lulu.com - Self Publishing - Free
Time to get your students to publish in a book form. 8.50 for a 200 page book! Damn, I am in.
Monday, June 13, 2005
An Index to Creationist Claims
An Index to Creationist Claims
A rather … compulsive, but welcome approach to the creationist ideas in the marketplace these days along with responses to them. This would be an ideal approach as a wiki in the classroom where the claims are separate pages with a wiki and students have to approach them in writing, challenging them with their own writing and thinking. I might even use this myself in a freshman comp context. Plus, it’s nice to see the responses to the more ridiculous arguments, for example:
Claim CA006:
Evolution promotes eugenics.
Source:
DeWitt, David A. 2002. The dark side of evolution. http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/0510eugenics.aspResponse:
- Eugenics is based on genetic principles that are independent of evolution. It is just as compatible with creationism, and in fact at least one young-earth creationist (William J. Tinkle) advocated eugenics and selective human breeding (Numbers 1992, 222-223).
- Many eugenics arguments, such as the expected effect of selective sterilization and the results of interracial mating, are based on bad biology. Better biology education, including the teaching of evolution, can only counter the assumptions on which eugenics is based.
Links:
Wilkins, John. 2000. Evolutionists against eugenics; Post of the month: November 2000. http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/nov00.html
References:
- Numbers, Ronald L. 1992. The Creationists. New York: Knopf.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
War: Realities and Myths - by Chris Hedges
War: Realities and Myths - by Chris Hedges
"Force," Simon Weil wrote, "is as pitiless to the man who possess it, or thinks he does, as it is to his victim. The second it crushes; the first it intoxicates."
O, my God! Please read Chris Hedges on war. Please. I know this sounds like a hysterical fit, but I reading it right now and for the first time am feeling the horror of this permanent war. I can feel it and it makes me sick.
How to Save the World
Last week I had the rare opportunity to see 'behind the scenes' at Disney World in Florida. They understand the importance of attention, but they have a very different approach to it. It is the job of management to pay attention to the individuals who work for them, and to remove obstacles that prevent them from paying attention to individual customers. Decisions on what to do and what to pay attention to are governed by a simple set of ordered priorities: safety first, courtesy second, the show third, and efficiency fourth. So if someone if behaving recklessly on a ride, safety first, stop the show. And if a child is unhappy, pull out all the stops to cheer them up, even if that cuts into profits. These rules are invariable, and no employee can ever be criticized for following them.
Privacy and peace of mind and heart, all relative in our world today, but when we have almost none in our ordinary lives we become—-less than humane. Pollard comments in his usual, efficient, ordered way.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
IDEABOOK.COM: How to create a small booklet
IDEABOOK.COM: How to create a small booklet
If you like little zines and poetry books, let this rip. Publish folks, publish!
Spurious
Their wandering is blogging, if this means to mark one’s presence in time.
Blogging as a way to raise one’s leg on the world, the unsanctified, true, sidereal world.
Spurious: Rats
I want to be a rat, you say to yourself. But then you say: I despise all rats. In the library, you read books about apocalypse. The end is coming, you say to yourself. The end for all rats. But an image comes to you of a swarm of rats running across a blackened planet. Nothing will stop them, you think to yourself. Not even the apocalypse.
A grim and grimy grey vision of the universe that is probably closer to self-knowledge than most people dare to approach. I think I will read more of this guy.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Mezzy Anonymous Search Engine - Search Without Fear
Mezzy Anonymous Search Engine - Search Without Fear
Anonymous surfing anyone? I am sure there are legitimate reasons for surfing anon, but my imagination fails me 
Magnatune TunePlug
Ummm, buy your flashblum. No, that sounds fugly. How about this…flashalb, flalb, flashcd. Needless to say, the world is full of combinations and variations on combinations, that’s the nature of evolution, but it is happening so quickly it’s like a bad 3–d headset, makes you brainsick. Magnatunes’s reusable USB flash drive comes packed with ten albums. You can buy them here.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Dave Pollard on Dave Snowden
Dave uses this story to illustrate why ABIDE works better than traditional approaches in complex situations::
Imagine organising a birthday party for a group of young children. Would you agree a set of learning objectives with their parents in advance of the party? Would you create a project plan for the party with clear milestones and empirical measures of achievement? Would you start the party with a motivational video or use PowerPoint slides? No, instead like most parents you would create barriers to prevent certain types of behaviours ("the bedrooms are off-limits"), you would use attractors (party games, toys, videos) to encourage the formation of beneficial, largely self-forming identities; you would disrupt negative patterns early to prevent the party becoming chaotic or necessitating the draconian imposition of authority. At the end of the party you would know whether it had been a success, but you could not define (in other than the most general terms) what that success would look like in advance.
In a very sensible post that refines for me one of the ideals I seek in the classroom (sigh…and am still seeking): the evolving, extended improv or as they say in the improv biz, the Harold. If I had my way schools of education would become places where we improvise content in the classrooms and there would be no specific learning objectives as such. Students would “perform” daily, honing their craft while making its content their own. There is much more I wish to bring into my classroom from the world of improv, but the greatest tool is the sense of trust and direction one gets from the audience. That’s what I want in the classroom.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Secrets of the A-List Bloggers: Lots of short entries
Secrets of the A-List Bloggers: Lots of short entries
On that particular day, the top five bloggers created an average of 30 entries, with each entry being under 150 words. This reminds me of something Phillip Greenspun, another A-list blogger, had said about why he liked blogs:
It allows me to experiments with the three paragraph form
Considering the size of the average entry from this, it seems very clear that an entry should be brief.
However, going beyond that is the number of entries that come in on a day. Looking at this, the average Top 5 A-list blogger wrote an average of almost 30 entries. Think about it for a second or two. 30 entries! It's a huge number for a single day.
Yes, it really is extraordinary how much some folks can churn out in their blogs, but then again look at Stephen King, Charles Dickens, or the like. Prolix in extremis. I can but wish for more from myself, but now teaching is once again consuming me. But teaching is good, n’est ce pas?
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
IT Conversations: Bruce Schneier - Beyond Fear
IT Conversations: Bruce Schneier - Beyond Fear
What need school for? Listen, learn, write, read more. Follow nose. Share and learn more from others.
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