A Great Example of Irony

This is just too rich. When the University of Texas at San Antonio drafted their new honor code/anti-plagiarism policy, they . . . you guessed it . . . copied. It seems that their policy came from Clemson by way of Brigham Young University, all with nary a peep in the credit department. They'll be a while living this one down.

Foot Shooters Unite!

If you really want to effect change in the world, sign a petition! Sign a petition to stop the war in Iraq, fight global warming, end genocide, and make the tax code fair. Change is as simple as that! Do I really believe that? Not for a second.
At JCCC, several interior design students have started a petition complaining about their primary professor. You have to think that'll make classes awkward for the complaining people. (I tried to find the article online, but it's nowhere to be found.)
Let's realize that professors have a dozen ways to screw up a students life if they choose to do so. Any professor who wants to drop a student a letter grade can find a reason to do so. And what can the student do? Not very much. Appeals are rarely successful. Mostly you can simply grit your teeth and suffer.
Knowing the professor in question, professionalism will permit her to work with these students and avoid reprisals, but somebody needs to share a basic life lesson with these petitioners. If you're going to stick your neck out, you'd better be sure about what you're doing. What seems like a great idea on Friday afternoon can leave an unrepairable mess come Monday.

Did He Think This Through?

I want you to think when you write. Is that really too much to ask? I just read an article on CNN's website explaining the pains that people in Camden, Alabama are feeling over gas prices. These people, shelling out some 13% of their paychecks for gas, are really feeling it. To this I have to say, "Well duh!" They paid this journalist, Steve Hargreaves, to tell us that fuel prices are high and that they hurt poor people who drive a lot more than others!
Take this example from the story's lead: "Corey Carter spends a quarter of his paycheck on gas." I feel for this guy, but I don't have any sympathy for Hargreaves, who doesn't give me sufficient information to know what to make of this story. How far does Carter drive to work? Why doesn't he carpool? What does he drive? If he's driving some 1978 Lincoln or other gas chugger, then might he not consider trying to downsize? It's possible that Carter drives a highly tuned hybrid from his mountain-top retreat where he cares for his mother who can't be moved and works a shift that nobody else who lives on his side of the plant works. Maybe, but with this fine writer--who apparently did most of his legwork for this article at a filling station--we'll never know.
Similarly, when he says, "For local businesses, an extra dollar spent in the tank means one not spent at the restaurant or hardware store," you wonder if you really needed to be told this bit of wisdom. An extra dollar spent on the cellphone bill or on the cable bill or on the lights or the water or taxes or anything else is also a dollar out of the local economy. How about a dollar spent on lottery tickets, Steve?
Just because Mr. Hargreaves gets paid for his writing does not make it good. I urge you to think harder than this guy thought before you sit down to pen your next grade-gathering effort.

Mind Mapping

While we're worrying ourselves about the mind, I'd like to say a word about mind-mapping. Actually, I'd like to say several words.
Word #1: Just what is mind-mapping? For all you visual thinkers, it's a powerful technique for taking notes and organizing thoughts. I saw a demonstration of it in a class once and was so impressed that I've shamelessly plagiarized that demo in my own classes. You might want to check out Tony Buzan's book on the topic.
Word #2: Isn't there free web-based software for just about everything? Well of course. You can scoot over to Mindomo to see how easily (and cheaply) you can make one of these little delights. Granted, it's not as fun as having a whole box full of colored pens, but you can't have everything--at least not in PHP.

How to Think

Is that a practical title, or what? This little bit of wisdom is written by somebody a lot more science-oriented than I am, but his ten methods for thinking will translate nicely to just about any discipline.

Why Should We Study?

In "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" (1765), John Adams admonishes his readers not to presume that the spirit that led to the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had died out entirely in less than a century. He instead assured his readers that such a spirit still existed, not only in England but in America as well. However, Adams added a warning to his assurance of the spirit's continued life:

This spirit, however, without knowledge, would be little better than a brutal rage. Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

You can find the last sentence of this quotation now at the top of a large placard advertising the new HBO miniseries about Adams. I saw it today in the post office. Given the general cluelessness of many high school graduates today, I have to wonder how seriously our society takes this admonition. Adams does not simply suggest that we "dare to read, think, speak, and write." He suggests it for a very specific reason, so that we do not descend into brutishness, so that we can be worthy of the political and social liberty that our heritage has bequeathed to us.
As a home-schooling parent and a teacher, I would urge those who read Adams' words to look beyond that one-sentence quotation and read this Founding Father's words in their original context. Should we fail to dare for the reason that Adams proposes and simply dare to descend into self-absorption and trash, we'll find the cause of liberty to be a lost one.

Get a Dictionary!

It isn't available online yet, but the last page in the April Atlantic has a marvelous response to two letter writers asking for definitions on two different words. The Word Court writer points out that while dictionaries cannot be expected to define every possible word that you might want it to define, good dictionaries cover an amazing amount of turf. He specifically suggests two dictionaries that I would also recommend:

• The American Heritage Dictionary
• The New Oxford American Dictionary

Yes, they cost a bit of dough, but if you're serious about using words--and any person with an eye on success in our world should be--then think of these as more of an investment than as an expense.

Are You Smart or Stoopid?

If you'd like to test your relative excellence in matters cerebral, check out this little test. Feel free to share your results for all to ridicule.

The Famous Final Line

Maybe you've been waiting to finish that great American novel with a truly inspired final line. Some people think that the opening line is the most important thing, but, let's face it, the final line is the lasting impression that people get. At least those people who manage to finish the book. You'll find a list of the 100 best concluding sentences in novels here.

You Write Like a Girl

Okay, we're probably all old enough that the old playground insult, "You throw like a girl," isn't that big of a deal. I know it doesn't bother me . . . much . . . anymore. You've probably never cared much if someone said you WROTE like a girl (especially if you are one). Regardless, I've just discovered the amazing Gender Guesser. Paste in a sample of your writing and it will attempt to determine whether you are male or female.
Should it concern me that I usually come out as a "Weak Male"? It really doesn't bother me. Really.

George Fredrickson--Writer and Change Agent

You've probably never heard of George Fredrickson, the 73-year-old historian who died last week. That's understandable. He never made quite the headlines of such truly important figures as Paris Hilton or Kanye West. Still, Fredrickson managed a few useful things in his life, notably writing six books. But more important than a handful of books was the impact those books had. George Fredrickson, over a long and productive career, made a difference for the better on racial understanding in the United States. No, he didn't win a Grammy and few people asked for his autograph, but this man took pen in hand and helped people to understand one of the most intractable issues of our lifetimes. That's a life well spent in my book. You can read a remembrance of the man in the New York Times.

Post Hoc Ergo Coffee Hoc

One of my favorite logical fallacies is the one called "post hoc ergo prompter hoc." Translated from the Latin, it means, "after this therefore because of this." The fallacy involves assuming that because something happens after another thing it was caused by it. For a ridiculous example, I might note that the phone rang just now, immediately after I launched FreeCell on my computer. Did FreeCell make my phone ring? If I'm committing that fallacy, then yes it did.
But let's be a bit more reasonable. Today in Kansas City, it's snowing. If my daughter calls me to say she's had a car wreck, I'll probably assume that the weather contributed to the wreck. In reality, though, just because she had the wreck after the snow started doesn't mean that the snow caused the wreck. She might have been hit by someone who ran a stoplight.
So along comes this brilliant person who seems to suggest that the philosophical upheaval we call the Enlightenment came about because of coffee. You introduce coffee into European society in the 17th century. The Enlightenment kicks in during the late 17th and 18th centuries. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the connection.
But what this theorist neglected to see was the great potato connection. Potatoes--which come originally from South America and not from either Idaho or Ireland--arrived in Europe around the same time as coffee, around 1700. And many historians and philosophers date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the same time. Coincidence? I think not!
Perhaps what both coffee- and potato-Enlightenment theorists neglect is the much larger current that these two agricultural products were a part of. When the New World opened up to Europe, an incredible amount of wealth began flowing from the Americas to the Old World. That wealth provided for education, leisure time, and a period of great philosophizing.
Nah, it must have been the coffee.

Valley Girl or Gangsta Girl?

Apparently, the new chic thing is fake memoirs. With megabucks available from publishers, why should anybody allow something as simple as truth get in the way of a contract. According to various sources, including this New York Times article, Margaret B. Jones, a supposed drug-running, half-white/half-Native American girl from South Central LA, the author of a critically acclaimed memoir, Love and Consequences, is in reality Margaret Selzer, an all-white, affluent child of the San Fernando Valley.
This has me wondering who these critics are, loving a book that hasn't a shred of truth to it. You have to wonder about a publisher who could be taken in by such a pack of lies.
What does this teach us as students? I guess there are a couple of lessons to learn. First, if you're going to fake your way to fame and fortune, make sure that you can cover your tracks. Second, when you're considering a source, look long and hard at it. Apparently neither the critics nor the publishers will do the job for you.

The Importance of Style

If you saw The Incredibles, then you might remember the title sequence, an homage to the great graphic designer, Saul Bass. Some enterprising person with a Youtube account decided to speculate on this question: What would the credits sequence for Star Wars have looked like had Saul Bass done the job?
Watch this and then tell me that style doesn't matter.

Built Green? No, Black

The top news on CNN's website at present--at least for the next five minutes until Hilary Clinton jaywalks or Britanny Spears leaves her kids at Saks--is an account of five $2 million-dollar homes burning in Seattle, apparently an act of eco-arson.
The ELF or Earth Liberation Front, it seems, decided that the most environmentally sensible way to deal with the insane land use represented by these houses was to burn them down. I'm curious how much carbon dioxide these fires released into the atmosphere.
I mention this event because I carry a certain amount of sympathy for these whack-jobs who torched these monuments to conspicuous consumption. Nobody on earth needs a $2 million house, just as nobody needs a Hummer. Food from South America isn't really cheaper than food from close by when we factor in all the costs of production and the effect that these foods have on our health. We live in a world with an unsustainable, indefensible way of doing a great many things. However, the way to change the world does not begin with burning down houses.
Of course, the ELF hasn't really thought things through from the outset, have they? What are they liberating earth from? Humans? Isn't there something paradoxical about human action serving to liberate the earth from human domination. Just yesterday, I thought I heard a tree in my yard say, "Gee, I wish some enlightened human would burn down the homes of some of the benighted types who are doing bad stuff to the earth."
Like so many people in our society, this brand of activist has opted for a lazy (and criminal) approach to effecting change. Rather than doing the difficult work of engaging people's minds and risking some questioning of their beliefs, these people just start burning. They're right up there with those who blew up government installations during the '60s or murdered abortion doctors in the '80s.
Such action is no more the mark of educated people than is living in ostentation and excess along Seattle's "Street of Dreams."

[Citation Needed]

This is a two-fer. Not only do you get to read an amusing tale of people going around graphically calling for sources on unfounded claims, but you get to read a reasonable defense of Wikipedia. Who could want more than this article offers?