Civil Rights Argument

US District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6735XI20100804)

The arguments about this issue will continue, and it's likely the US Supreme Court will eventually hear a case to decide which side will "win". This is an excellent case for tracking different types of arguments, and especially for noting when an individual or group argument is internally contradictory. For instance, BBJJ commented on the Reuter's article: "Anyone can marry anyone they wish who is of the opposite sex. It is the same for everyone. Absolutely no one is being discriminated against." However, the claim that "anyone can marry anyone they wish" is contradicted by the very next phrase: "who is of the opposite sex."

Inherent in that contradiction is the assumption that no same sex couple would desire to be married, which is obviously not the case. In addition, singling out one segment of society to live under special rules is antithetical to the Constitution's "equal protection under the law" position.

This is an issue embroiled in debate about civil liberty versus majority rule. When, if ever, does the majority have the right to impose its will on the minority in social situations? Very muddy waters, indeed.

Data Liberation

The amount of personal data collected and stored can be staggering, and I'll admit to a modicum of conflicted paranoia about the whole issue. After all, I LOVE the tools Google makes available, and the only price (so far) is that Google be allowed to know every last detail of who I am and what I do with each tool so it can tailor a marketing strategy that meets my needs to a T.

Did you know Google has a "data liberation" site? http://www.dataliberation.org/ There's a list of Google products and how you can "liberate your data" from each. Hmmm... Why isn't WAVE on the list?

I was intrigued by the number of Google products I CHOOSE to use: Gmail, iGoogle, Contacts, Calendar, Blogger, Health, Maps, Picasa, Reader, Voice, YouTube, Docs, Sites, Web History, Bookmarks. And today I offered myself as a willing guinea pig for new products.

Long live Google... but hooray for the chance to get ME out of their storage should I choose to leave.

School daze

Just 3 weeks left until school starts. When I was a youngun, the beginning of a school term brought almost as much joy as the end of one. Now that feeling is less so, but there's still an energy born in the anticipation of getting to know another group of students. I love the journeys they plan for me as they delve into academic research, sometimes for the very first time. I can hardly wait to see what I learn from the upcoming group.

There's still so much to do. I wonder if I'll be able to get enough done before classes start. I still have to write the last six assignments, do all the audio recordings, and choose articles for at least the first 3 weeks of discussions... not to mention writing and recording the lectures.

Ahhhh.... mind sex...

Have you ever really connected with someone? I mean really connected... as if your thoughts were so parallel that the level of intimacy was almost more than could be imagined? Well... it might be all in your mind. No, really. And it could happen between you and a teacher even (but apparently NOT with an online teacher ;). Check out this article about language / mind connections: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=of-two-minds-listener-brain-pattern-2010-07-27

How are you at multi-tasking?

I did pretty well on the focus test, but task swapping was off the charts poor. Give it a try yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/06/07/technology/20100607-distraction-filtering-demo.html

Interpretation

We often think we know the 'truth' of a situation, but the reality is our 'truth' is colored by the interpretive inflections given by others. In that swaying, our reality is developed, and our response to the world around us is cast.

Check out this example of how interpretation makes all the difference.

Ready, set, go!

Haven't been using this blog much at all, but I've decided rather than having students create both a web site for their research projects and a blog for journaling, we'll just do blogs and add pages to them. This should reduce the amount of stress students feel, as well as make it easier for us to keep track of one another.

I'm excited about this research project and hope the students find it interesting to delve into some aspect of digital living. We'll see. :) The project will have several parts, so having a place early on to store them will be more efficient than trying to put them together at the last second.