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KemsOldEntries

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 5 months ago


automotive forum

December 2005

(12/30/05)

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html

http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/webclass/web/project1/group4/index.html

 

(12/27/05)

Apparently, I lack the patience and fortitude to do simple tasks under Linux. Multimedia? Gee, what's that? XP, for all its security flaws, is still point and click. Tools should be like that. So, if that's the criteria, then I guess Linux isn't yet up to tool level. Perhaps I'm making a category mistake (i.e., using inappropriate standards and criteria), but I think not given that recent Linux distributions that clearly seek to approach the ease of XP.

 

Linux is getting better, but it is still suited for people who prefer to tinker in the code rather than regular users who just want to get things done easily. Although I can use Macs, I stay away from them because of the small selection of software available. I still prefer XP over the alternatives despite the security risks for that reason. The risks are lessened when simple security precautions are taken, such as anti-virus software and a firewall. - ParkerBlog

 

(12/22/05)

Linux installed. I partitioned the drive so my XP files are still there. So, the next step is to get those photos burnt to a CD. Easily done in XP, but Linux isn't always so straight forward. (Indeed, first attempts to burn to CD caused system to hang.)

 

(12/21/05)

We're back, and Vegas was great! We stayed at the Monte Carlo, and on Tuesday we went downtown to the courthouse to get our marriage license and get married. Then back to the hotel to get dressed up for a night on the town. (Why didn't we get dressed up ealier? Well, the Monte Carlo was without power and water in the morning! Yes, comps came our way.) We rode the tram to the Bellagio, watched the water show and then crossed the street to the Paris. At the Paris we found a nice outdoor cafe/restaurant where we had dinner as the Bellagio water show played across the street. Then back to the Monte Carlo for some drinks at the brew pub where we met a Marine and his brother-in-law. Holly wanted to play pool, and the Marine knew a place. So off to a dive bar (the Double Down) in our dress-up clothes for a few games of pool! Finally, back to the hotel for a bit of rest before getting on our noon flight. All in all, a good time. Maybe a photo or two will appear here later.

 

 

(12/18/05)

Continuing to finish up, but as I work off the live CD, I begin to think about putting Linux on for good. But that gets me to thinking about cryptography and privacy in general (a leap, but I first became interested in Linux years ago through a passing interest in the Cypherpunk movement). I wonder if employing cryptography brings the watchful eyes of the FBI, NSA and CIA. Now NSA and CIA traditionally (and I believe by charter) do not spy on US citizens within the States. But that's changed a bit, or at least it seems to have as you may know from recent news stories claiming that the President authorized some 500 US citizens to be observed by the NSA. Gets me to thinking. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is a good place to look for information on this and related issues. The link is below.

 

(12/18/05)

http://www.crypto.com/

Electronic Frontier Foundation's homepage

http://www.ehow.com/

 

(12/17/05)

Grading, grading, grading! In other news: hard drive kept crashing again. There's a problem with the connection between the HD and the mother board. I'm not sure if the problem is mostly the drive--if so buying a new one would fix it. Anyway, the continual crashing seems to have corrupted some of the XP system files. In the mean time, I've been working off a Linux Live CD, and I've managed to mount the drive, but now I have to figure out how to transfer my photo files. They're all that's not backed up to my jump drive, but there are too many to fit. Maybe I'll just e-mail them all to my google account!

 

I leave on Monday for Vegas. Grades will be posted to e-lion before I leave. Hope you're all having a great break.

 

(12/15/05)

According to Nature, a respected science joiurnal, Wikipedia is as accurate as the Encyclopedia Brittanica. However, it seems that people are trying to kill Wikipedia through a series of fraudulent entries. I suppose that soon people will post porn on it, thereby causing it to go the way of L.A. Times short-lived wikitorials. Here's the story.

With all this bad press and fraudulent information being posted, who knows what will happen to Wikipedia. -BensBlog

 

(12/14/05)

Check this link; it's very disappointing. Are there counter-reports?

 

(12/14/05)

The United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) released a report today about the problems affecting poor children around the world. The causes are numerous, and the consequences bad. But what to do? The news release suggests monitoring and fact finding, but what about action? It's not clear what the UN can do. Will they be able to force nations to bring their laws into line with international law? No. The UN respects individual national sovereignty to such an extent that it's not possible for it to force such measures. Perhaps it's a design flaw of the UN, but it's not one that will go away soon, especially when the wealthier countries (read the US) refuse to sign onto treaties that (while ostensibly protecting human rights) would possibly leave them open to action by the international community. The only way that will change is if the constintuencies of nations push their governments to act upon and adhere to international efforts to promote the well-being of all human life. Comments, rebuttals? You know the drill.

 

(12/13/05)

The big news today: A European investigation finds evidence of secret CIA prisons having been established in Europe. The problem seems to be that this practice was conducted without any legal oversight. The European Union frowns on this sort of thing. One reason might be because using their land for non-judicial retainment of prisoners seems to call into question their sovereignty, or at least to flout it.

 

 

(12/12/05)

So, the guy who posted the innacurate article on Wikipedia that's gotten all the press did it as a prank. Apparently he didn't realize that Wikipedia is a serious online source! Check it out.

 

And a nice op-ed on the lack of moral responsibility on Wikipedia from the Register.

 

(12/10/05)

Human Rights Day

 

(12/10/05

Mohamed ElBaradei, secretary general of the nternational Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), received this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The IAEA seeks to reduce nuclear weapons, and ElBaradei has some ideas about why nuclear weapons continue to be a threat. We're several years from the end of the Cold War when it seemed so likely that nuclear war would occur that Americans built bomb shelters and there were school programs such as Duck and Cover, a program for school children, but the threat of nuclear weapons being used remains. Why? According to ElBaradei a major cause for this is worldwide poverty. He believes poverty breeds conflict and bemoans the trillions of dollars spent on military development when only a fraction of that amount goes to ending poverty. So, if that's the problem the question becomes: what causes poverty around the world? If we find those causes, as you readers well know, those causes can be attacked, altered, so that a different outcome occurs. A different world if you will. So, that's what I leave you to think about: what causes poverty around the world?

 

(12/10/05)

Oh, Epoche Wiki, how will you fare? Lonely I imagine until January. It's okay. Hang in there and enjoy the rest. There'll be much activity come Monday.

 

In other news: Holly has two interviews for two jobs, one in Oklahoma the other in Alabama. We're hoping there will be more. It's hard to tell whether we'll be moving next year or not. Academia is odd, and it's difficult to stay in one place at the beginning of one's career. Happy Valley's been good to us, and so it'll be sad when we eventually have to leave.

 

(12/09/05)

The side bar will change over the break. There will still be a clear way to access the class blogs for those of you who wish to keep participating. Want to know if you're favorite blogger has made a new entry? Just hit the "Changes" button to see what's happened recently. I'll keep browsing, and of course, TheKemBlog will continue.

 

(12/09/05)

Anyone no know a down and dirty guide to Excel on the net? I want to set up a spread sheet for keeping my grades next semester, and I don't want to buy a book for what should be a simple operation.

A little Google search gave me two sites that you might find useful:

http://spreadsheets.about.com/cs/excelfunction1/a/introfunctions.htm

http://spreadsheets.about.com/cs/excelbasic/qt/

-TheMax

I know this kid that would be glad to help if you have any problems. His name is Justin Wyne and his email is wyne@psu.edu. Penn State has a site set up that may be able to help you with that. http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/gradebook/excelgrades.html It lets you grab your roster from eLion and some other cool things. You seem pretty tech savvy, but if you do need help with anything, just let me know. -- WynesWorld

 

(12/08/05)

Snow storm? I thought it was supposed to snow today, but now it seems the snow is coming tonight. That's potentially problematic because I want feedback on the course! So, let's hope the snow isn't as heavy as predicted. Really, though, PSU rarely cancels classes, so we should be okay. See you tomorrow.

We should get at least 5 inches. I'm friends with two meteorology majors and it's hilarious being around them when snow storms are coming. They watch the radar loops all day and get rather excited about the storms. - WynesWorld

 

 

(12/07/05) ConclusionByKem

 

By request, a sample conclusion: it's the one paragraph conclusion to the terrorism paper; odd that after twenty-three pages it comes down to that, huh?

 

(12/07/05)

Forgot to mention this, but Holly and I have decided to go to Vegas over the break and get married! We'll be there for three days and two nights in the Monte Carlo casino and hotel. Wedding, honeymoon and vacation all in one.

Wow, congratulations! -TheMax

That's awesome. Congrats!-MrsGummyJoe

Good luck! - PghFf

Congratulations!-AlisonsThoughts

NICE...bet on 23, its lucky! - RedDog

Congratulations. I recommend learning all of the charts and tables of Black Jack. - WynesWorld

CONGRATS!! Black 15 is definitely a winner. -BoreSta

 

 

 

(12/07/05)

A link for those working on childhood obesity!

 

(12/07/05)

The Belmont Report

 

(12/05/05)

Rich's grading algorithm

 

 

(12/05/05) AnIntroductionByKem

 

 

(12/05/05)

It's 3AM. My computers hard drive has been crashing the past few days. I'll be grading while it's working. My apologies for those waiting anxiously for grades and comments.

 

If it's still working it would be an excellent idea to backup your hard drive while it lasts! - ParkerBlog

 

(12/03/05)

Wikipedia makes the news wires, and it ain't glowin' reviews! Apparently some people don't like their biographies, but as the article points out them's the risks of wiki. It's even covered in the New York Times. So, what? Well, it just means that you can't rely upon a single source when you want to learn something.

 

(12/03/05)

Here's something interesting I'm looking into. It'll be old hat for some online gamers, but the interface between the real world and the virtual at Project Entropia is interesting to me. I've not yet gotten on to it, because the download is lengthy. Anyway, the economies between the real world and entropia seemed to be shared. On the one hand that's just a gimmic for them to force players to pay more to survive in the online environment. On the other, it would seem that you'd be able to use Entropia's economy to make money convertable to real world cash. Entropia recently made news for sale of the most expensive virtual property. Pleasure Island, a space outpost, sold for 100,000 real dollars! (That's 1,000,000 Project Entropia Dollars.)

 

Got anything to say about Entropia or other online communities? You know the drill, post it to TheKemBlog.

 

(12/02/05)

The 1000th person was executed last night since capital punishment became legal in the US in 1976. The man was 56 and was convicted of killing his wife and her father. The following quotation from the above news story is bothersome:

Only China, Iran and Vietnam held more executions in 2004 than the US, according to rights group Amnesty International.

 

It seems also that support for capital punishment is falling. Click on the above link if you're interested; as is typical of the BBC you'll find other resources.

Hi Kem. I just wanted to remind you that we didn't have a hard copy of the paper to give you today, but it's posted on the wiki, just as you requested. I hope this is all you need. Have a good weekend. Paul Schmidt and Meg Smith, section 6

 

Comment from Super Jor. Early in the semester I was using our book to help me prepare my arguments and I found it quite helpful. I was dissapointed when I read the sections on persausave arguments. The book said I should simply change my mind on an issue if I was having trouble arguning my side and didn't seem to have many revelent suggestions to help me make the arguments for my final paper.

 

November 2005

(11/30/05)

The Supreme Court will be hearing two abortion cases this term. There's also reference to an interesting poll on US opinion about abortion in the following CNN story.

 

FinalProjectPictures for Meg and Paul, Section 6

(11/29/05)

A long day of grading: it's 9:30PM and I'm done for the day. If you've not received your proposal grade and comments, it should be coming in the next few days. See you tomorrow, folks.

 

(11/28/05)

For those seeking reasons to justify their claim that the Steelers will beat the Colts, scan the following article!

 

(11/28/05)

I woke up at 4AM this morning. I'm not sure why I couldn't sleep properly, but it's now 2PM and I'm tired! Things still to do today: section 67 (hey folks!), finish Aristotle's Politics for tonight's reading group that meets at 7PM. Grade until 9:30PM (Colts begin to dismantle Steelers then). So I guess I'll be in bed by 12:30AM at the earliest. It's that time of semester when no one in the university sleeps!

It's kind of funny what "Ads by Google" say about each blog, maybe it's just me. -TheMax

 

(11/28/05)

And you thought definition arguments were unimportant? Well, there's trouble defining terrorism at a EU-Mediterranean summit.

 

(11/28/05)

Welcome back everyone! Hope you all had a great break; the Bronx was fun as usual. See you in class.

 

 

(11/27/05) Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

 

Wikipedia article on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which basically claims that the way one interacts with and sees the world is shaped by one's language. Enjoy.

 

(11/27/05)

An editorial from Wired magazine on why $5/gallon gas is good for us! Of interest for all you alternative fuel pundits.

 

(11/27/05)

So I was taking a break from grading by reading some Aristotle. In Book 3 of the Politics he asks whether one must be a good person in order to be a good citizen. Ultimately Aristotle seems to say no because a citizen's role is to act for the good of the community. A good person, on the other hand, is defined according to how well he or she completes the various activities and vocations in life. Politics, and being a citizen, is just one part. Therefore, they're not the same, and one can be a good citizen even if one fails at other parts of life. What's the big deal? Well, it does raise interesting issues about whether US politicians ought to get into trouble for non-political failings. The crucial thing to sort out would be whether their actions are detrimental to the well-being of the community and where that line should be drawn. Private sexual affairs, no; lying in court, yes. How about incompetence at governing? I'd hope so.

 

(11/27/05)

I'm back from the Bronx. Much turkey. See you all tomorrow!

 

(11/20/05)

(11/17/05)

For those of you following along, you know I'm soliciting ideas for next semester. If you look at KemsSpringEnglish15, you'll find that I'm probably going to ditch the McCloud and Weston. What do you think?

 

(11/14/05) Improving English 15

I'm thinking about making changes in the course for next semester. I have a number of ideas, one being to return to physical papers. I'm not sure that the electronic medium is taken as seriously as it should be. Though trees will die, hard-copies may seem more significant to the authors (I mean you!). Anyway, if you have any suggestions please put them in the following link: KemsSpringEnglish15.

 

 

(11/09/05)

Yesterday was my birthday. I stayed home sick. Still, Holly and I managed to go to dinner at Outback. It was good to get out of the house.

 

Happy Birthday, Kem! Sorry to hear about your illness. Outback is a good start to a recovery though. - PennyPacker

 

(11/07/05)

I hope all have heard about the riots in France.

 

(11/07/05)

What I did this weekend: 1. Worked on the syllabus and organizing the next couple weeks. Take a look; you may find your proposal! 2. Helped a friend with a dissertation grant proposal. It's better now. 3. Came down with some kind of illness. Flu, cold: I don't know.

 

(11/06/05)

Good news: DSL is installed, and wireless modem works. Bad news: I'm getting sick.

 

(11/04/2005)

 

Just got an e-mail from PB wiki. They've added some new features including an easy way to construct tables. Here's an example of a 2x2 table.

 

Cell 1 Cell 2
Cell 3 Cell 4

 

Enjoy!

 

(11/04/05)

Okay. Today, finally, I'll have DSL at home. No more need to leave the house to do my Wiki work. Yeah! See you on the other side of the information revolution.

I remember getting DSL for Christmas a few years ago. I'll never go back to 56k, ever. - ParkerBlog

 

(11/02/05)

New month, clean slate.

 

October 2005

(10/31/05)

If you become rich, follow Bill Gates' example.

I think he's devoted somewhere on the order of 25 billion dollars to charity so far. He just has that much to spend. FreeSpeech

 

(10/30/05)

Just found another twist on open source: open source constitution.

 

(10/30/05)

Crypto-anarchism: something to think about in a digital age.

 

(10/29/05)

New US passports will have a data chip in them. Privacy advocates worry because it may well be possible for others to scan the passport without actually looking at it. I have an older passport. Rush to get yours before October 2006!

 

COMMENT ON THE "STACKS": So I have been told that in the past, people have been raped and even murdered in the stacks! I'm sure that it was way before security devices and measures so I really had nothing to worry about but it was just creeping knowing what had happend.

 

(10/28/05)

Well, just found a review of Wikipedia on CNET, but it doesn't say anything we don't already know. Any savvy rhetor knows that you need to check your sources against one another. Simply acquiescing to an alleged authority is never good.

 

(10/28/05)

Okay, so I'm not too keen on Halloween anyway. Often enough a Halloween party is filled with a bunch of people you don't quite know. Put them in costumes and there's no real way to remember who you've met. Even so, I go every year. But what about a theme? This year I'm going to one with the theme of childhood trauma/fears. Gruesome indeed! Real childhood traumas aren't funny at all, and I'm not sure why it's an appropriate Halloween theme. I suppose the aim is to find the costume that makes as many people uncomfortable as possible. Odd. Maybe I should dress up as a bat.

 

Sorry for the typo, real snow I thought that was real snow. Wow i guess us freshmans have more to see.-Kaycee

(10/26/05)

I was just browsing the blogs, and apparently it snowed yesterday, 25 October. 'spose I should chime in as well. My main concern is that I didn't move some of my plants inside. Hopefully they'll recover once I do. But then there's my cat Dude to worry about. For some reason he tries to kill all living things.

 

(10/26/05)

So, I've been out of town and unconnected for a few days. In the City of Salt Lake it's all about safety, and an internet feed might be a bit too risky. I mean, it's clearly addictive. I suppose for that reason it's good that I still have dial-up. No one wants to surf the web at 42K, now do they?

 

(10/26/05) Movie Reviews for class:

1. The Godfather, part II

2. Wedding Crashers

3. M*A*S*H

4. City of God

5. Pale Rider

6. Sleepless in Seattle

 

(10/17/05)

web essay on gendered language

 

(10/14/05) JoePa in the news.

Today's New York Times published a story about Joe Paterno.

 

(10/13/05) US imperialism and political responsibility

Venezuela is expelling a US based missionary group and claiming that the group is trying to spread US imperialism. What does it mean to claim that the US is an imperial power? I suppose it's not an empire in the traditional Roman sense or even like the Ottoman empire. (Or is it?) Some things seems relatively clear: the US is the only remaining super-power at the present, and US culture is a huge export. A key part of the Pax Romana was the exportation of Roman culture; why think today is any different in this regard?

 

(10/13/05)

I've been MIA, but the world moves on. The crisis in Darfur continues, and even, it seems, gets worse. An increase in violence has caused the UN to remove its non-essential staff, according to a BBC report. In other words, the increased violence means that aide agencies will not be able to do their work in Darfur, and one wonders whether speaking of genocide even makes sense anymore. Both the US and UN have declared the Darfur situation to be a genocide, but if it were a genocide, if the US (and other powers) thought so, wouldn't they stop it? When does it become necessary to intervene? At a certain point, those with the ability to stop deaths may be under a moral obligation to do so.

 

 

(10/10/05)

I have a budding interest in philosophical discussions of the emotions, and I thought I'd check out what the Wikipedia had to say. Well, turns out that the emotion article on the Wikipedia is the center of some controversy. Very interesting, because it gives a live example of how Wikipedia checks itself and works toward self-correction; it's a nice example of the open source concept at work. Check it out!

 

(10/10/05)

The Washington Post reports that the GOP is having trouble russeling up candidates for the upcoming senate elections. What's the cause? Perhaps Elizabeth Dole's lackluster performance, or the president's low approval ratings.

 

In a separate article, The Washington Post reports that beer sales are declining, and industry experts are investigating the causes.

 

(10/10/05)

There's a land rush at the North Pole. The New York Times reports that land is becoming available as the polar ice cap recedes. Various countries are laying claim to the land as it appears. I don't think that we can claim our own space and start a sovereign country.

 

(10/09/05)

It's not always about rhetoric, but tropes tend to gather around major events, especially around disasters. Disasters strain the human capacity for understanding, and consequently are the sites for analogy proliferation. Are the weekend earthquakes in Pakistan more like last year's tsunami or this year's Gulf hurricanes? How does one compare 20,000 dead to another set of dead?

 

(10/07/05) Hints for fighting freshmen exhaustion

Per our discussions in class, first steps in the battle against exhaustion among PSU freshmen! How-to's on fighting mid-afternoon energy slumps and generally maintaining your energy levels.

 

(10/07/05)

Yesterday in a speech, President Bush compared Islamist terrorists to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Islamist terrorists and thinkers have been quite an analogy attractor. Does it make a difference that Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were all in power and systematically killed a large portion of their own population? Would that be an essential difference, or does the former Taliban government in Afghanistan serve to reinstall the analogy? I'm on record as being suspiscious of this particular analogy, in part because the historical connection between early twentieth-century fascism seems to me tenuous at best. Others, such as Paul Berman, disagree.

 

(10/07/05) Tracking analogies

 

  • Avian flu

Policy initiatives based on 1918 analogy

NPR looks at the 1919 analogy

Guardian report on recreating the 1918 flu for research

  • Darfur

Wikipedia on Darfur conflict

CIA factbook entry on Sudan

Darfur and the Somalia analogy, Wikipedia on Somalia

 

 

(10/06/05)

 

As predicted, the bird flu hit the newswire and scientists are attempting to find the similarity between earlier viruses and the potential pandemic. What can we learn from this? Rheotorical tools aren't just important for arguing about who should be in office, who deserves praise or even what car is superior, but also for scientific inquiry. Rhetoric is a thinking skill. And it's transferable to any arena of life where thought is required, or better yet, any portion of life where thinking makes a difference! How so, you may ask? Surely rhetoric has nothing to do with mathematics, or any of the other hard sciences for that matter. But consider how scientific discovery occurs. It's not just a matter of going out there and tapping into some magical genious trait, but rather looking for similarities and differences to guide, making choices and finally convincing the community that the project is worthwhile. Not important you say? Well, who discovered calculus? Turns out there's a long history, as you may know. But seen from another angle, the discovery of calculus is an extended dialogue and debate about math. Still not convinced? Try to think about the world without Galileo!

 

I understand that we should link pictures from other sites, but you should be very careful. There can be extemely adverse side effects imposed by the host of the image. Just be careful that you aren't using too much bandwidth. You can get a free Geocities account to host images, this site probably won't kill your traffic limit. -FreeSpeech

 

(10/03/05)

Wow, open source is surely the next big thing. Check out this story about open source beer!

 

(10/02/05)

An impending bird flu epidemic will be an analogy attractor. Perhaps, it will be compared to the Swine flu of the early twentieth century. Use your rhetorical powers; think critically and you'll survive the analogical onslaught.

 

 

(10/01/05)

The new layout is nicer, more elegant even. I wish I could take credit, but it's the geniuses at pbwiki who make our blogs possible. Hmm, I suppose there's an enthymeme in that statement, namely, that the pbwiki team must be geniuses because they came up with this great new design. But that's not necessarily true since sometimes (even if rarely) people come up with good designs by accident. Peace out, and keep blogging.

 

(10/01/05) The Reason of Terror

So, I just found out I can start a free geocities website. That's important because I can upload photos there, and then link to them to include in this site. The following picture is of the participants in a conference in Antwerp that I co-organized. The conference was called \"The Reason of Terror: Philosophical Responses to Terrorism.\"

 

Left to Right: Dr. Arthur Cools, Gary Gabor, Daniel Breyer, Herbert de Vriese, Kem Crimmins, Anne Ozar, Dave Zinn, Dr. Michael Baur, Dr. Fernand Tanghe, Dr. Peter Reynaert, Petra Van Brabant

 

 

September 2005

9/29/05)

 

The sub $100 laptop coming to a nation near you!

I appriciate the change in site design, whether that was your idea or not! -FreeSpeech

 

(9/26/05)

The BBC is also covering the debate over intelligent design in Dover, PA. Things to think about: what reasons do both sides have, what is the argument about, and where you stand.

 

(9/26/05)

News bulletin: McDonald's branding in Japan! Successful businesses, just like great rhetors, pay attention to their audiences.

 

(9/26/05)

It's been a while since my last blog entry. Today's New  York Times has a story about the debate over intelligent design going on in Dover, PA.

 

(9/20/05)

MusicByKem

 

(9/17/05)

For those who are wondering, two sections are graded, and the other two should be done in the next few days. Sometime in that time span, grades and comments will be e-mailed. See you Monday!

Good for you. Keep grading!

 

(9/14/05)

So, we've been working on definitions and counter-arguments. We've focused on what it means to learn and what is knowledge. In the process, we modeled the dialogic process of argument and counter-argument by pursuing proposed definitions to their demise. And, in the end, we discovered that counter-arguments are best thought of as being made by people who stand to lose something should the argument be successful. Today the world's oldest pupil addressed the UN, and he understands very well that there are losers and winners defined solely in terms of educational opporunity.

Italics are here.

 

(9/10/05)

So, President Bush has called for national unity in support of the Gulf region. That, of course, is laudable, but consider how he went about it. The President evoked the memory of 9/11 (which may not be surprising giving its upcoming aniversary) and called upon the resulting unity stemming from those attacks. There are, however, a few problems with that rhetorical move. First, the attacks on NYC and the Pentagon were sudden and unexpected; whereas Hurrican Katrina was well forecasted meaning that plenty of time was available to prevent the human disaster of having thousands of people remain in the storm's path. Second, the use of 9/11 seems to me a rather disingenuous rhetorical slight of hand which mainly serves the purpose of distracting the public from seeking explanation for the federal government's mishandling of the situation. The response came too late, and was inadequate. Normally one would expect some political fallout and for someone (such as the President) to bear responsibility. However, by evoking the war on terror, the President effectively seeks to transfer the old rhetoric of 'war on terror' to a 'war on nature' so that the old poll ratings might be revived despite a genuine failure on the government's (Administration's) part. If you want to see the news story, click here.

 

(9/07/05)

I've heard tell that learning and self-transformation only occur when subjects enter a state of cognitive dissonance. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing? As information proliferates will humans enter a state of continual flux wherein their identies fall away, where no stable outposts remain for viewing the world and making sense of it? A large part of human effort seems to be occupied with maintaining who we already are. Various postures, clothes and even brands function as so many barriers to interaction and possible conflictual experiences. That's been the past, but what about the future in which today's fashion falls away by tomorrow. Why have an ipod and a cell phone when you can have both?

 

(9/07/05)

Human cloning is a go in the UK. I'm not even sure where I stand on this. Feel free to talk about this in your blogs or even start a conversation on the following Wiki. WhatAboutCloning

 

(9/06/05)

So, do you think Internet service providers have an obligation to protect the names of their clients? To keep them from being prosecuted? As the world becomes more data friendly, prosecution could be a step away. Sure, maybe you're doing nothing wrong; perhaps, you are. But read the following story from the BBC about Yahoo! in China. (Note: the report is so far unconfirmed...)

 

Here's the Cypherpunk Manifesto, which contains some thought provoking musings on privacy in a digital age.

 

(9/06/05)

Well, apparently I won't be breaking Vegas anytime soon! Both PSU and USF broke my predictions by a long shot. Sure, 3-2 was bit low, but PSU didn't even score a single safety. Bummer, safeties are cool b/c it's two points AND you get the point back. Very efficient, no?

>>Kem, you read my post before it was finished! Yes I'm sure many others would enjoy having someone more "distinguished" here, but Cal Ripken Jr. is just fine with me! RedLionBlog

 

(9/03/05)

Just saw the following editorial on the BBC. New Orleans crisis shames America. An immediate question is whether the writer encapsulates feelings in the US, and if so, will some change occur to make the US better? Feel free to put your comments here: ViewsOnKatrina.

 

(9/03/05)

News coverage is tricky, and it's especially hard to be clear on who the audience is and what is meant by a given caption. Consider the following: Finding vs. Looting, which I tracked down through Insta Pundit, which is often acknowledged as the most widely read blog on the internet. Don't ask me how that happened, nor how such a claim can be substantiated!

 

(9/02/05)

Change Yourself

Well, the first week of class is over. The Wikis are sprouting, and now it’s time to cultivate. As with any collaborative enterprise, the goal is to make everyone better. One way that works is by helping one another, giving feed back, and whenever possible showing others a new way of proceeding. Everyone won’t always follow your lead, nor should they. But the example is important because it encourages people to imagine otherwise, to think in new ways, and possibly to change a bit. Collaboration leads to transformation.

 

(9/02/05)

Sitting alone in my office hours (Friday 4-6PM!) and found the following on the BBC website. Audience must make all the difference in how the story is being told. Katrina around the world.

 

August 2005

LearningToWikiAndBlog

PicturePages

IntellectualPropertyOnEpoche (8/30/05)

 


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