Satire: Revealing absurdity

Two of my favorite satirists are Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Under the guise of humor and wit they expose the fallacious reasoning of politicians. Admittedly, they tend to do this more often with conservatives, but they call liberals and progressives to task, too. Still, currently there is a wealth of absurdity in many conservative positions. Take a look at how Stewart crafts a segment that establishes the unsupportable position a group of conservatives took on the Al Franken Rape Amendment. Pay close attention to the reasons given by the Republicans for voting against the policy change.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

The speed of language

"After studying the readouts, the researchers found that in these normally reading adults, word identification, grammar and pronunciation all activated parts of Broca's area—and in a very neatly defined sequence. Like clockwork, it took about 200 milliseconds to identify a word, 320 milliseconds for grammatical composition and 450 milliseconds for phonological encoding."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=language-process-speed-location

Culture distinctions

This is not only incredibly funny, it also gives a glimpse into subtle cultural distinctions that develop in a society. The American analogy would be Twinkle Twinkle Little Star performed in a Southern drawl, an inner city Rap, and maybe even a conservative voice class. Enjoy.

Visual representations

Sometimes it's really hard to grasp a concept when it's written in words. Images can say so much more. Like this one showing what a trillion dollars looks like, from the Daily Cognition:

BIG Money! (http://www.dailycognition.com/index.php/2009/03/25/what-1-trillion-dollars-looks-like-in-dollar-bills.html)

10 Sites to Learn Something New in 10 Minutes a Day

This list of web-based resources will point you toward web sites that will help you learn how to do new things, stay on top of current events, and learn about topics where your current knowledge may be lacking.

Subjects decided

The votes are in. This term the final projects will be developed within these four major subject areas: environment, animal rights, medical research, and prison industry. Looks like an interesting mix with lots of issue possibilities.

Now I have to go out and find some articles for our first discussions.

Republican Pants On Fire

Republican Pants On Fire

Posted using ShareThis

Classes

What was I thinking??

It looked like this semester would be really light on work. After all, I'd lost my COS class and one at Reedley was threatened because of CA's economy. Then I only had one class scheduled by DeVry. Rather than fussing about not having a full schedule, I decided it would be a great time to take a drawing class.

After registering and paying for the class, I learned both Reedley sections would make and DeVry asked me to teach another class. That's great, but it now means I'll be up to my eyeballs in busy this fall. Still, taking a drawing class should enhance not only the classes I teach but also my personal life, so busy seems like a good thing.

I've been having some problems with some of the resources I've been creating for my Reedley classes. I really hate trying to figure out the technical snafus, but the process must go on. Unfortunately, these problems have really slowed my prep, so I won't have everything ready at the beginning of the class.

That's another of those "what were you thinking" things. I never should have decided to completely revise a course so close to the time it had to be taught again. There are always bugs to be worked out when doing a major overhaul, and I do know better. Still...

Composition of Housekeeping

Audience
- Most loved ones = They forgive when yet another project intrudes before cleaning.
- General visitor = Uh oh. Better dust the sitting room at least. Maybe low lighting would be enough.
- Dinner guests = Better get the stains off all countertops and see if those wicked no-see-um flies can be kept at bay for at least a few hours.
- Overnight guests = Uh... kitchen, bedroom, bathrooms, and shove as much as possible in closets and drawers; close office door.

Purpose
- Go to work = Kick the biggest stuff aside on the way from the bed to the bath to the office.
- Cook = Locate the kitchen and use its phone to dial take out.

Detail
- When does "dust bunny" become the furry crud-ball that consumes Cleveland, TN?
- When do windows become foggy apertures that beckon one to daydream?

Why is it that housecleaning is like a never-ending English 1 class of essay after essay on the same subject???

Okay... enough of this, I need to go finish the kitchen floor.

Eeek!

Classes start in less than two weeks, and I'm still only half done with prep. Looks like I'll be putting in some long hours over the next few days. Fortunately there's a lot of egregiously fallacious reasoning going on, so there's plenty of text to examine in the classes!

Check out Stephen Colbert's lampooning of Orly Taitz. Her arguments against Obama's right to serve as president are nothing short of legendary for their refusal to recognize fact over fiction.



Asked how announcements of Obama's birth could be published in Hawaiian newspapers 48 years before they would be needed to fabricate a US birth for his presidency bid, Taitz had some difficulty explaining... What sort of fallacies are in this clip?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Why I teach online...

Gotta love this guy. He even sounds like Elvis. :)

Download Argunet from SourceForge.net

Argunet is an open source product for creating argument maps. Download Argunet from SourceForge.net

An argument mapping tool I like even better is DebateGraph (http://debategraph.org/). It's online, collaborative, and sophisticated.

Modal Windows

Was trying to figure out how to make those small pop-up text boxes so I could add definitions to some pages when I ran across this blog message

http://blog.feedmarker.com/2006/02/12/how-to-make-better-modal-windows-with-lightbox/

Didn't even know they were called "modal windows". SO much to learn.

Gathering Resources

While mentoring the PBWorks Summer Camp I've been gathering various tools that can be used in developing course materials and activities, as well as by students in team projects. The list is under Cool Tools. I try to choose those that are free, but some of them may have paid versions available, too.

Vacation?

All classes are finally done, and all final grades have been posted. That means four full weeks of no teaching. It's a vacation I've been anticipating for some time. Of course, it will be a working vacation. There's a wiki to prep for fall classes, the PBWorks Summer Camp (I'm a mentor), and a Web Graphic Design class I'll be taking.

There are also closets to be cleaned, windows to be washed, and all the other details of housekeeping that seem to take a back seat to classes. It will be a busy month.

NxtBook

Ran across this site when I clicked on a link in an email message from TechSmith (Camtasia): http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/streamingmedia/0808/#/82

Not only did I find the content interesting, I found the concept of NxtBook interesting, as well. I'm sure there will be much more content made available in this way, especially since it allows for incorporation of advertising. :)

Thunder Screen Reader

I have an adult friend who reads at about a second to third grade level. He tries to use the internet, but it's hard for him. I've been thinking for some time about how his internet experience might be richer, more fulfilling.

Well, this morning a student's question sent me on a bit of a quest, and I ran across Thunder, a FREE screen reader. http://www.screenreader.net/index.php?pageid=2 I've downloaded it and will be installing it on my friend's computer. Even though it's intended for the visually impaired, I think my friend will benefit from this nifty bit of technology. :)

National Debt Clock

Just added the National Debt and Population counter ... It's just one more way to assure my depression is as deep as possible on any given day. :)

Actually, the National Debt numbers are so staggering they have almost no meaning for me any more. What I really want to know is when the potholes on our roads will be filled, whether the police and fire departments are adequately staffed, when all citizens will have access to healthcare and education, and what I'm going to cook for dinner.

In the beginning...

Have played with other blogs in the past, but decided it's time to set one up for use with my classes. Soooo... Here I go!