The Civil Cynic: Larry Sizemore

Ephemera

2012-01-28T10:21:00.001-08:00

Approaching the threshold of a one year "antiversary", awaiting the ephemeral and evanescent enlightenment, the awakening that eludes me except for momentary teasing glimpses.

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Location:Main St E,New Freedom,United States

Sam With the Red Hat

2011-12-31T17:24:00.000-08:00

How We Created Gold Diggers

He sits at the same corner of the bar every night. Sam's red hat is soiled and worn and has comfortably conformed to the tufts of dusty gray hair that curl up from its frayed edges. He seldom engages in conversation and even his interactions with Michelle, the bartender, are almost ritualistic. As one Miller Light is finished, he removes it from the tattered blue beer bottle snuggy, and Michelle promptly pulls another from the cooler, pushes it into the insulator, and deftly pops off the top with her bar buddy opener. Sam nods gratefully and continues to silently survey the scene.

The social world revolves around two power brokers, the men of means, and the beautiful women. The rest are destined to varying degrees of mediocrity and loneliness, or have made peace with their compromised expectations of a life partner in order to avoid the emptiness of solitude.

Laura is often at the bar too, but less frequently than Sam. She has not been graced with the attributes that western culture has defined as beauty. She is in her late forties and overweight. She is judged first on those characteristics, as people are so inclined to do in this modern world. As she laughs with various people at the bar it seems as though she may have once been "attractive", but has now resorted to artificial exuberance while giving up on appearance. In between conversations, her loneliness is palpable, despite manifesting itself in an opposite set of outward behaviors than Sam's despair.

Neither Sam nor Laura have settled for less than they expected from life. They have not compromised their values in a life partner, and as a result, they have ended up alone. They are locked into a social stratification that parallels our economic strata. The rules say that blue collar ends up with blue collar, poor end up with poor, overweight ends up with overweight, and those without the attributes somewhat arbitrarily determined as signifying beauty, end up with like partners. Certainly, the rules are sometimes flexed and even shattered, but by and large, they hold. It is a socioeconomic/physical appearance "Caste System".

The people who ignore the rules are the power brokers: the men of means and the women of beauty. Wealthy men are made by society. Their creation seems to be rooted in various combinations of drive, intellect, testosterone, people manipulation skills, and/or luck. They have successfully transferred the alpha traits of our primate relatives to the modern world and are often driven by the same primitive brain chemistry, the need for power, control, and even conquest. The materialism of western culture has exacerbated the power of primitive men and is at least partially responsible for their development as caste breakers, my term for those who, at will, transcend the barriers that are embedded in our indoctrination. Sam and Laura are powerless among them.

You have seen it and made the call. Pretty woman walks hand and hand with older, much less attractive man, and you have perceived the rule breaking. You may have even whispered to someone, "He must have money". You may have watched them get into the $150,000 car to confirm your suspicions. You have known of women who made themselves throw up after eating or who diet incessantly just to make themselves more attractive to a man of means. You have seen women enhance their breast size, endure plastic surgery, Botox injections, and starvation to maintain their role as a man's accessory. The result is heartbreaking confusion about what is really important about people.

Women, not just beautiful ones, have found the allure of breaking caste so overwhelming, that they have grown more and more willing to sell out on their own needs for personal relationships in favor of the promise of endless access to shopping, travel, prestige, and security. Conversation, humor, connections, and other personal needs are replaced by material needs. Amidst strings of extravagant denial, these women rationalize and pretend away their lives in this socially accepted form of prostitution. They subsist on pretending to love a man to whom they are little more than an accessory, a Lamborghini, a Patek Philip watch, a showpiece for social engagements.

Women of beauty have also been nurtured from childhood with pressures to be thin enough, pretty enough, smart enough, and perpetually young enough to attract powerful men. Much as the men have linked so much of their self worth with what they have instead of what they are, these women have been taught that their personal worth in this world stems from their appearance and the caliber of man that they can attract with it. The profoundly sad result of the way our culture determines value is, in part, Sam and Laura. These are people who are valueless in the eyes of much of the world, barely worth of a glance in the bar, and destined to either settle for someone else of no perceived value, or to be alone.

Sam never had a chance in this world of social power brokering and nurtured prostitution. You can see it in his deep-set brown eyes. The unkempt white eyebrows and sunken cheeks are testaments to Sam's furrowed existence. His perpetual presence in the corner stool at the bar is how he manages his craving for being with people, even though they will generally fail to see his innate value. Laura sleeps with men, actually, most any man who will temporarily make her feel the value that our society has denied her.

My reflections, as a man of middling appearance, average means, high compassion, and high intellect, are admittedly colored with some resentment. I have a healthy disdain for beautiful women who compromise their own values to rationalize an existence with a wealthy man. I take their judgment of me personally and become frustrated with their utter stupidity. I am equally frustrated with the materialism that created these skewed female forms known in some circles as gold diggers, in others as just prostitutes. I am frustrated by a world that values beauty and wealth over compassion and intelligence. I concede that these values have evolved from our primitive pasts and are still present in parallel forms throughout the animal kingdom, and I even hold out hope that they are not as pervasive as indicated by my typically cynical perception.

Even though seventy-five percent of women surveyed stated that they would marry for money, I am interested in the other twenty-five percent. I believe that most of the others are emotionally vacant beings who will ultimately realize their flawed judgment when they realize that they have spent a lifetime faking a loving relationship. One day, the bar will be filled with the empty discarded old souls of the gold-diggers.

Today, I saw a red hat in the store. I picked it up and tried it on. It didn't fit.

Is that some kind of sign?

2011-12-25T20:46:00.001-08:00

Some of these are genuinely clever and hilarious, others stupid, and some, just offensive. All of them are uplifting, insofar as humor is an inspiration.

The Reason for the Season

2011-12-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas is certainly recognized first as a religious holiday and is without a doubt, at the same time, a huge secular and commercial phenomenon. Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus, often proclaiming Christ as "the reason for the season" and reminding the secular world that Christ needs to remain in Christmas. Christmas has been a federally recognized holiday since the late 1800s.

It is important to note that hundreds of years prior to Jesus, mid winter celebrations abounded throughout the world. Yule, a word often used during the Christmas season, was a Nordic celebration that involved the ubiquitous logs by the fire that you might find on a Christmas Card. The celebrations around winter solstice were probably timed because of the abundance of meat and fermented drink that was available at this time of year. In Germany, it was the Pagan god Oden that was the source of solstice observations. Oden traveled the world at night to determine who was good and who was bad. Sound familiar? Of course, if you were bad, it was believed that Oden would cause your demise.

Around solstice, Romans honored Saturn, the god of agriculture. During Saturnalia, Romans participated in celebrations that made Mardi Gras seem tame. Romans allowed their slaves to run the town for a few days and all commerce was shut down so that the party could be the focus.In contrast, much like the religious and secular divisions in our current winter holiday, Romans observed the birth of Mithra on December 25th (familiar?), which was a very religious holiday, and Juvenalia that catered to Roman children of Rome. (no Santa, but the parallels are interesting).

Early on, Easter was THE Christian holiday, not Christmas. The birth of Jesus was not celebrated. Sometime around the year 450, the Church decided to create a holiday to celebrate Christ's birth. Unfortunately, the actual date is not known, but most historians agree that the man Jesus was probably born in the spring. Pope Julius chose December 25th as the date of the Feast of the Nativity, adopting some of the traditions of the already established and lively Saturnalia Pagan celebrations. The nativity feast and Pagan Saturnalia customs spread to Europe by around 650 A.D.The strategy of making Christmas happen around the time of the winter solstice celebrations increased the likelihood that the holiday would have popular appeal. Over time, Paganism faded, and on Christmas, traditions involved attending church and then engaging in wild carnival celebrations that involved much drinking and questionable ethical behaviors (smile--it was the middle ages after all).

The idea of social flip-flopping continued as the tradition was that poor people would go to the doors of the upper classes and receive gifts of food and drink (emphasis on the "drink"). Christmas, by 1750 or so, was questioned by the Puritans, whose aversion to fun times had become legendary. The Puritans actually cancelled Christmas around this time. Can you do that? The Puritans did it, seeing it as a form of decadence and hedonism. Yes, Christmas celebration became a sin to religious radicals of the day. The pilgrims, also legendary in their radical religious aversion to fun, left Christmas behind when they came to America. In fact, for many years preceding 1700, Christmas was banned in Boston. Anyone exhibiting signs of Christmas spirit or outward celebration was fined 5 shillings, a sizable fine for the day.

It wasn't really until around 1800 that Americans gave Christmas a makeover, in response in part to the social unrest of the times that was rooted in unemployment, poverty, and social class tensions. The current ideals of Christmas were invented largely in the mind of author, Washington Irving, who saw the holiday as uniting people across class levels. English author Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol echoed that sentiment and was influential in solidifying the values that were beginning to be embraced by Christmas. It was also during this time that Christmas was shifting to a time to rain gifts upon the children.

Interestingly, this scripture seems to condemn Christmas Trees:

Jeremiah 10:2-4 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. Don't be a Heathen! (okay, I added that last sentence =)

So the "reason for the season" being Jesus is a stretch, in a purely historical sense anyway. And the traditions are certainly not of Christian origin, implying that Christians cannot claim the sentiments and traditions as their own. Then again, any holiday can be whatever you want it to be. If Jesus is the reason for your season, enjoy it. But it is also true that the "godless heathens and pagans" of the world, as well as the agnostics, and non-Christians, can share equally in the hope, charity, peace, and love that is the deeper reason for the season.

Funny Bunny

2011-11-18T14:47:00.001-08:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mt Airy Rd,Shrewsbury,United States

2011-11-13T18:36:00.000-08:00

I am proud of myself for my steps forward in this crazy life. I have learned the power of companionship, as no one can navigate this alone. I have felt the emptiness of having nobody wonder where you are, what you are doing, how you are doing. I have felt regret in having lost friends that I have let down. I have felt the disappointment of losing connections with people who were once a vital part of how I defined myself. And I have, against all my inclinations, made myself step into social settings and chat it up with real people, making new connections, leaving the past behind me. I am in charge of what happens, and stepping outside the comfort zone is the power that turns the pages.

The History of Earth as a Clock

2011-11-01T16:43:00.001-07:00

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Occupy Sesame Street 2011

2011-10-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

The brutality of living life with someone's hand up your ass. Brought to you by the letter A (anarchy).

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Night Snow

2011-10-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hearing the world outside with a heavy blanket of fresh snow is like hearing for the first time. All of the clutter is erased and the most subtle sounds are so acutely clear...the dog barking beyond the field, the shovel scraping at the end of the street, the drips from the downspout, the plow across town. Every few minutes the crack of a large branch that had finally succumbed to the weight of the snow, all echoes and resonance absorbed, is so focused, like it is inches away. The reverberating waves of the hard and angular world are soft as cotton, this shrunken world playing tricks with my spatial sensibilities.

10 Rules for being Human (That You Will Forget)

2011-10-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

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Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's

yours to keep for the entire period.

2.

You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time

informal school called, "life."

3.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of

trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much

a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."

4.

Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be

presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you

have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5.

Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that

doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are

still lessons to be learned.

6.

"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has

become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again

look better than "here."

7.

Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate

something about another person unless it reflects to you something you

love or hate about yourself.

8.

What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools

and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice

is yours.

9.

Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions

lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10.

You will forget all this.

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Churchill: I Wish I had Said That!

2011-10-25T18:13:00.001-07:00

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3. Winston Churchill Vs. George Bernard Shaw

4. Winston Churchill Vs. Lady Astor

7. Winston Churchill Vs. A Member Of Parliament

8. Winston Churchill Vs. Bessie Braddock

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Facebook--do you suck?

2011-10-25T18:04:00.001-07:00

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Autocorrect Fail

2011-10-25T17:47:00.001-07:00

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Glenn Beck's Stage Office

2011-10-25T17:31:00.001-07:00

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Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought Published January 7, 2010 by Nikki

2011-10-23T19:11:00.001-07:00

Read the Complete article here

Unfortunately, our cognition is not perfect, and there are
certain judgment errors that we are prone to making, known in the field
of psychology as cognitive biases.

Gambler’s Fallacy

The Gambler’s fallacy is the tendency to think that future
probabilities are altered by past events, when in reality, they are
not. Certain probabilities, such as getting a heads when you flip a
(fair) coin, are always the same. The probability of getting a heads is
50%, it does not matter if you’ve gotten tails the last 10 flips.

Reactivity

Reactivity is the tendency of people to act or appear differently
when they know that they are being observed. when individuals know
they are being watched, they are motivated to change their behavior,
generally to make themselves look better. Reactivity is a serious
problem in research, and has to be controlled in blind experiments (“Blind” is when individuals involved in a research study are purposely withheld information so as not to influence the outcomes).

Pareidolia

Pareidolia is when random images or sounds are perceived as
significant. Seeing clouds in the shapes of dinosaurs, Jesus on a hot
pocket, or hearing messages when a record is played backward are common
examples of pareidolia.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

self-fulfilling prophecy is engaging in behaviors that obtain
results that confirm existing attitudes. A self-fulfilling prophecy is
a prediction that causes itself to become true. For example, I believe
that I am going to do poorly in school, so I decrease the effort I put
into my assignments and studying, and I end up doing poorly, just as I
thought.

Halo effect

The Halo effect is the tendency for an individual’s positive or
negative trait to “spill over” to other areas of their personality in
others’ perceptions of them.

Interesting Fact: The Physical Attractiveness
Stereotype is when people assume that attractive individuals possess
other socially desirable qualities, such as happiness, success and
intelligence. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when attractive
people are given privileged treatment such as better job opportunities
and higher salaries.

Herd Mentality

Herd mentality is the tendency to adopt the opinions and follow the
behaviors of the majority to feel safer and to avoid conflict. Also
known as “Mob Mentality,” this is, at its most common form, peer
pressure. Herd mentality explains why fads get so popular. Clothes, cars, hobbies, styles, all it takes is a group of people who think something is cool, and it catches on.

Interesting Fact: things that are unattractive, or
that would never seem cool or popular now have had huge followings due
to herd mentality. Examples include parachute pants, pet rocks,
mullets, cone bras, tie-dye, sea monkeys, and the 1980s (by the way,
that is an ’80s guy in the picture above).

Reactance

Reactance is the urge to do the opposite of what someone wants you
to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain your
freedom of choice. This is common with rebellious teenagers, but any
attempt to resist authority due to perceived threats to freedom and/or
choice is reactance.

Hyperbolic Discounting

Hyperbolic discounting is the tendency for people to prefer a
smaller, immediate payoff over a larger, delayed payoff. Much research
has been done on decision-making, and many factors contribute to the
individual decision making process. Interestingly, delay time is a big
factor in choosing an alternative.

Escalation of Commitment

Escalation of commitment is the tendency for people to continue to support previously unsuccessful endeavors.

Placebo Effect

The Placebo effect is when an ineffectual substance that is believed
to have healing properties produces the desired effect. Especially
common with medications, the placebo effect has been observed when
individuals given a sugar pill for a real ailment report improvement.
Placebos are still a scientific mystery.

PART TWO

Confirmation Bias

The confirmation bias is the tendency to look for or interpret
information in a way that confirms beliefs. Individuals reinforce their
ideas and attitudes by selectively collecting evidence or retrieving
biased memories.

Availability Heuristic

The Availability heuristic is gauging what is more likely based on
vivid memories. The problem is individuals tend to remember unusual
events more than everyday, commonplace events. For example, airplane
crashes receive lots of national media coverage. Fatal car crashes do
not. However, more people are afraid of flying than driving a car, even
though statistically airplane travel is safer.

Illusion of Control

Illusion of Control is the tendency for individuals to believe they
can control or at least influence outcomes that they clearly have no
influence on. This bias can influence gambling behavior and belief in
the paranormal.

Planning Fallacy

The Planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time
needed to complete tasks. The planning fallacy actually stems from
another error, The Optimism Bias, which is the tendency for individuals
to be overly positive about the outcome of planned actions.

Restraint Bias

The Restraint Bias is the tendency to overestimate one’s ability to
show restraint in the face of temptation, or the “perceived ability to
have control over an impulse,” generally relating to hunger, drug and
sexual impulses.

Interesting Fact: unfortunately, this bias has
serious consequences. When an individual has an inflated (perceived)
sense of control over their impulses, they tend to overexpose
themselves to temptation, which in turn promotes the impulsive
behavior.

Just-World Phenomenon

The Just-World Phenomenon is when witnesses of an injustice, in
order to rationalize it, will search for things that the victim did to
deserve it. This eases their anxiety and allows them to feel safe; if
they avoid that behavior, injustice will not happen to them. This peace
of mind comes at the expense of blaming the innocent victim.

Interesting Fact: On the other end of the spectrum,
The Mean World Theory is a phenomenon where, due to violent television
and media, viewers perceive the world as more dangerous than it really
is, prompting excessive fear and protective measures.

Endowment Effect

The Endowment Effect is the idea that people will require more to
give up an object than they would pay to acquire it. It is based on the
hypothesis that people place a high value on their property.

Self-Serving Bias

A Self-Serving Bias occurs when an individual attributes positive
outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors.
A good example of this is grades, when I get a good grade
on a test; I attribute it to my intelligence, or good study habits.
When I get a bad grade, I attribute it to a bad professor, or poorly
written exam. This is very common as people regularly take credit for successes but refuse to accept responsibility for failures.

Cryptomnesia

Cryptomnesia is a form of misattribution where a memory is mistaken
for imagination. Also known as inadvertent plagiarism, this is actually
a memory bias where a person (inaccurately) recalls producing an idea
or thought.

Bias Blind Spot

The Bias blind spot is the tendency not to acknowledge one’s own
thought biases.

Complete article
Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought Published January 7, 2010 by Nikki

Social Neuroscience and the Soul’s Last Stand

2011-10-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

Clipped from

Social Neuroscience and the Soul’s Last Stand
Joshua D. Greene (c)
Version 11/06
To appear in Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of
the Social Mind
A. Todorov, S. Fiske, and D. Prentice, Eds. Oxford University Press.

full text here

Dualism: What’s at Stake?

"Most people are dualists (Bloom, 2004). Intuitively, we think of ourselves not as physical devices, but as immaterial minds or souls housed in physical bodies. Most experimental psychologists and neuroscientists disagree, at least officially. The modern science of mind proceeds on the assumption that the mind is simply what the brain does. We don’t talk much about this, however. We scientists take the mind’s physical basis for granted. And among the general public, it’s a touchy subject. So why bring it up?" (Greene 2006)

"Why does it matter if people are dualists? As long as we scientists know what we need to know in order to do our work, is it our business, or in anyone’s best interest, to provide compelling demonstrations of the fact that we have no souls? I think that it is. Dualist beliefs may be harmless enough most of the time, but they divide us in destructive ways, enable us to do some of the worst things that we do, and may ultimately lead to our demise." (Greene 2006)

"Consider, once again, the events of 9-11. Nineteen men killed nearly three thousand people, setting in motion a series of events that, in addition to killing many thousands more people, has destabilized the Middle East at a time when nuclear weapons are becoming increasingly accessible. Those nineteen men destroyed their bodies, along with thousands of others, believing that they— their souls—would go on to enjoy a pleasant post-corporeal existence. Of course, it’s possible that their beliefs about the next world played no role in their decision to leave this one, but that seems unlikely. Rather, as others have noted (Dawkins, 2006; Harris, 2004), it seems that their beliefs about the afterlife enabled them to do what they did."(Greene 2006)

"Dualism is at the heart of many bioethical debates (Bloom, 2005). It is often said that the abortion controversy is really a debate about when life begins. But “life” is not the real issue, as everyone agrees that a fertilized human egg, like an unfertilized human egg, is alive...Both birth control and abstinence rob potential humans of their existence. Rather, the debate over abortion is ultimately a metaphysical one. The question is not whether a fertilized egg is alive, but whether it is host to a “human life,” i.e. a human soul. Without a soul in the balance, there is no abortion debate..." (Greene 2006)

"We want to punish criminals, not because of the future benefits, but simply as an end in itself. These retributivist tendencies are, I believe, implicitly dualist. If someone has a brain tumor that causes aggressive behavior, people are far more willing to forgive that person. “After all,” we say, “It’s not him, it’s his brain.” When we attribute bad behavior to a purely physical cause (such as a brain tumor), the retributivist impulse fades.' (Greene 2006)

"From a neuroscientific perspective, of course, all behavior (good and bad) has purely physical causes, and anyone who does unusually bad things must have something, however subtle, wrong with his brain. Combine this ordinary scientific assumption (all bad behavior is caused by brains that are, in some sense, broken) with people’s ordinary assumption about punishment (there is no inherent value in punishing someone for having a broken brain), and we get a very different sort of legal system. We get one focused exclusively on the practical business of preventing future crime, rather than on the metaphysical business of making guilty minds suffer for their sins." (Greene 2006)

"Dualism plays a parallel role in people’s thinking about mental illness. Intuitively, we all agree that people with cancer deserve our sympathy and financial support because cancer is a serious medical problem. But if someone is depressed, that person’s condition is, to many people at least, just “psychological,” and the prescription is to “snap out of it.” Dualism draws an illusory distinction between having a weakened body and having a weakened mind." (Greene 2006)

"Officially, we scientists already know that the operations of the mind are the operations of the brain, and not those of an immaterial soul. This is, at the very least, our working assumption. In making this assumption, however, we part ways with the rest of humanity, the vast majority of whom explicitly believe that we are souls housed in bodies. Such dualist tendencies are, in my opinion, a major social problem, and may become increasingly destructive. If that is correct, then dispelling dualism is serious business, at least as serious as curing cancer, and probably more so. If anything can cure us of our dualist tendencies, it is social neuroscience, the physical science of human experience." (Greene 2006)

This is a synopsis of a portion of the full article.

full text here

Nuff Said

2011-10-23T19:00:00.001-07:00

Alexander Graham Bell, I Hate You (confessions of a phone hater)

2011-10-23T18:58:00.001-07:00

The Antisocial Myth
I hate telephones! I apologize to anyone I have ever offended by not dropping whatever I am doing and picking up the phone to talk to you. I am not antisocial, I enjoy conversation when accompanied with eye contact, body language, and whatever that vibe is that you share with someone in a face to face conversation. Part of my hatred for phones is that they do not align with my style of communication.

I am a thought processor. That means that my ideas churn in my brain awhile before I am able to assemble a string of words into a coherent sentence. In person, this is generally tolerated, although I admit that during rapid fire brainstorming type conversations, people often wonder why my apparently deep thinking brain came up with nothing. On the phone, this is called an "awkward pause", inevitably followed by, "Hey, you still there?" or "I think we got cut off".

People who are unlike me, the ones who can almost mindlessly engage in conversational banter with complete strangers, are almost always unaccepting of the fact that not all brains are wired like theirs. Sometimes they even personalize my differences and label me as rude, aloof, arrogant, or uninterested. The last one is particularly insulting, because I am very interested in many things and willing to discuss them for hours on end.

While these aspects of my personal wiring also come into play in face to face conversations, I have learned ways to conceal them to the point where there is no anxiety involved for me or the other parties. With cues like eye contact and body language, I am much more able to decipher meaning and to interact comfortably. Phones create anxiety for me. Sorry. That's the way it is, like it or not. Don't take it personally. Google phone anxiety and you will see there are others like me and not like you.

The INTJ INTP Connection
These are MBTI personality descriptors developed through the research of Carl Jung, Katharine C. Briggs, and Isabel Briggs Myers. If you have never studied them, it is well worth your while in developing an understanding of how others are like and unlike you, as well as the important capacity for accepting these differences. I generally have tested in the INTJ realm, although I have recently tested as INTP. So how does this relate to telephones? Here is a list:

INTP/Js are usually not in-tune with how people are feeling, and are not naturally well-equiped to meet the emotional needs of others. For that reason, they need the benefit of social cues to engage in conversations, and even then it can be tricky.
Sometimes, an INTP's well thought-out understanding of an idea is not easily understandable by others. By nature, telephones are concise and direct, making long explanations and complex ideas difficult to explore.
INTJs spend a lot of time inside their own minds, and may have little interest in the other people's thoughts or feelings. This seems callous but is a fact of life for 2-3% of the population. This results in stressful disdain for small talk which is the pinnacle of purpose for the telephone. For me, the ability to engage in small talk varies. I know that it is a courtesy and I attempt to comply with social norms, but it is certainly a struggle most of the time. INTJ/Ps have not chosen this brain wiring any more than skinny people have chosen to be skinny or tall people have chosen to be tall. It is their hard wiring and should be accepted as is, even if it doesn't meet your needs. Friendships with INTx types can be very rewarding and stimulating if you can accept their differences with an open heart and an open mind. In the absence of properly developing their communication abilities, INTJs may become abrupt and short with people, resulting in some isolation and even loneliness. The telephone (and a crowded pub for that matter) are generally very poor for communicating with INTx types.
Telephones are an intrusion into the INTx world where multitasking can be a challenge. When INTJ/Ps are involved in something intellectually, which is almost always the case, interruption is something that is something they have difficulty recovering from. Particularly INTPs will have to retrace their complex mind steps from the beginning to get back to where they were before the interruption. What is a telephone if not a form of interruption? Others need to have empathy for the fact that a 5 minute phone call can easily cost an INTJ/P an hour of time if they were involved in something deep or meaningful. Using email or text messaging is much more courteous.

Here is a more complete portrait of the INTP and the INTJ.

Okay, Phones are Rude
Despite risking harsh judgment from socialites, phones are just rude tools. I know they have a utilitarian purpose and were an amazing invention, but their time has passed. A postcard allowed the recipient to take in the message in his/her own time, to process, and to reply insightfully. The modern day version, the email, does the same. Although, we have designed some rudeness into those with the red exclamation points that state that "my email is more important than all the others". This is only acceptable in a work scenario or an emergency. Text messages are similar, except there is hurt and disappointment if one does not respond quickly enough to those. But this is only marginally rude.

Synchronous chat, such as the Facebook chat feature has evolved to a level of rudeness similar to a phone in that the user initiates a chat and expects the other person to respond instantly. The Facebook equivalent of having the phone off the hook has become checking the website with chat turned off or via phone so that others don't know you are online. Much like the phone, it is anxiety provoking to state that "now is not a good time for me to chat", because many people will personalize a comment like this.

Enter the telephone. When did it ever become okay to ring your way into someone's home with the expectation that they are to stop whatever they are doing: showering, eating, sleeping, cooking, reading, watching TV, playing with the children, whatever, in order to talk to you because you aren't doing anything at the moment? It might be fine if not for the comments such as, "You never answer your phone", which imply that the caller has taken offense to your schedule and inability or unwillingness to drop your activity to answer the phone.

Some people may be thinking, "You know, you can always say that this is a bad time, I will call you later."
Most of them are lying or fooling themselves while making a mental note that they have been offended, even if in a subtle way. Later on you will likely here a snarky comment like, "Well, you are always busy when I call" or " you never call me back anyway."

It actually becomes an anxious moment when the phone rings and I do not want to talk. And yes, people have a right to not want to talk at any time. It is not antisocial or isolationist or anything else. It is a preference of the moment that is not intended to offend or damage relationships.

Phones are unnatural and intrusive. People have a right to answer them or not without risking being labeled or judged and without having to be concerned whether they are damaging a relationship. Answering the phone is not a common courtesy or a display good manners. It is not the same as waving or saying hello to a neighbor across the lawn.

A true courtesy would be begin every phone call by asking the recipient if now is a good time to chat for a few minutes, and to show no signs (inward or outward) when someone is unable or unwilling to stop and chat on the telephone. Thanks for taking these moments to try and understand how the minds of other people work.

Next, let's talk cell phones!
Call me!
Larry

Fortune Cookie

2011-10-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

Artist Michelucci, 1998 Tolkien calendar

The events of your life are often beyond your control.

Subtext: What is within your control is a positive acceptance of events passed and a thirsty attitude about the opportunities that arise through inevitable change. Acceptance and attitude are the reins to control this wild ride that is life!
Larry Sizemore 2011

Lessons From Children

2011-10-23T18:54:00.001-07:00

As a teacher, some of the most important lessons in life have been revealed to me through kids. Here is the short list of profound kid ideas, profound that is, when you apply them to your adult life!

Important Things I've Learned From Kids

1. It's more fun to color outside the lines.

2. If you're gonna draw on the wall, do it behind the couch.

3. Ask why until you understand.

4. Hang on tight.

5. Even if you've been fishing for 3 hours and haven't gotten
anything except poison ivy and a sunburn, you're still better off
than the worm.

6. Make up the rules as you go along.

7. It doesn't matter who started it.

8. Ask for sprinkles.

9. If the horse you're drawing looks more like a dog, make it a dog.

10. Save a place in line for your friends.

11. Sometimes you have to take the test before you've finished
studying.

12. If you want a kitten, start out asking for a horse.

13. Just keep banging until someone opens the door.

14. Making your bed is a waste of time.

15. There is no good reason why clothes have to match.

16. Even Popeye didn't eat his spinach until he absolutely had to.

17. You work so hard pedaling up the hill that you hate to brake on
the way down.

18. You can't ask to start over just because you're losing the game.
Read more at parents.berkeley.edu

Lessons From Children

2011-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Kids know more important things than you can imagine! I have spent most of my adult life with kids, and the lessons they can teach grown-ups are remarkably insightful, if you can think metaphorically that is. These kid generated life rules are metaphors for life, and we can learn from them.

Great Truths About Life That Little Children Have Learned

1. No matter how hard you try, you cannot baptize cats.

2. When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair.

3. If you sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the
second person.

4. Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato.

5. You can't trust dogs to watch your food.

6. Reading what people write on desks can teach you a lot.

7. Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.

8. Puppies still have bad breath even after eating a tic tac.

9. Never hold a dustbuster and a cat at the same time.

10. School lunches stick to the wall.

11. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

12. Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

13. The best place to be when you are sad is in Grandma's lap.

from parents.berkeley.edu

Redneck Fire Alarm

2011-10-22T14:56:00.001-07:00

weekends

2011-10-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

Weekends...

honored as:

a time to share with people...

a time to celebrate successes...

a time to relieve each other's stresses...

a time for empathy, affirmation, and joy...

a time to touch another's life and to allow them into yours...

a time to see something you haven't seen or can't see too much of...

a time to feel the satisfaction of finishing something...

a time to feel the satisfaction of starting something...

a time to endulge in petty pleasures..

a time to do something important...

a time to share with people...

or to be alone.

Every Friday I am greeted by this dark cloud.

These are my lowest lows and a times of greatest emptiness.

Every Friday I try my best to find a TGIF inside of me and I just can't find it.

I try to make myself go where people are to try and embrace their enthusiasm.

I try to reach out to friends without sounding pathetic.

I try to hide the ugliness that causes people to alienate others.

I try to do things that I am good at: writing music, taking pictures, etc., in the hopes of stirring up some enthusiasm.

Every Friday I try.

And I fail.

I am not a social person compared to most.

However, I have learned that I am anything but antisocial.

None of any of this means anything without occasional interactions with others.

It means nothing ,and it is exhausting.

I am tired.

If there is a Hell, it is surely to be alone.

Dear __, Sincerely _

2011-09-28T18:56:00.001-07:00

Dear People of the World,

I don't mean to sound slutty, but please use me whenever you want.

Sincerely, Grammar

Dear CatDog,

Please tell me how you poop. I have wondered for so long.

Sincerely, a confused fan

Dear Americans,

We totally agree with you about illegal immigration. Please allow us to show you to the nearest airport.

Sincerely, Native Americans

Dear Rubik's Cube,

Done!

Sincerely, Colorblind

Dear classmates who tormented me in 7th grade because I was smarter than you,

I need you to work overtime tomorrow.

Sincerely, your boss

Dear scientists,

Your mom thinks I'm big enough...

Sincerely, Pluto

Dear lady in front of me with the six screaming kids under the age of 9,

You see that box of condoms that mysteriously appeared in your cart? You're welcome.

Sincerely, A Good Samaritan

Dear John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,

Your name is my name too!

Sincerely, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

Dear substitute teacher,

That is my real name.

Sincerely, Mike Rotch

Dear 19 Kids and Counting,

It's a vagina, not a clown car.

Sincerely, the rest of the world.

Dear little umbrella in my drink,

Thank you for protecting my drink from rain.

Sincerely, Relieved

Dear Snookie,

So, you're orange and love lasagna? Huh. Original.

Sincerely, Garfield

Dear Math Teacher,

Please stop stapling Burger King job applications to my tests.

Sincerely, Struggling Student

APublicServiceAnnouncementFromClintEastwood.jpg (500×333)

2011-09-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

APublicServiceAnnouncementFromClintEastwood.jpg (500×333)

The Notorious William Posters

2011-09-10T06:59:00.001-07:00

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Your Sunday Devotional 8/21

2011-08-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Sources Say: Rapture Yet to be Defined

The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible at all. In fact the words first known use is in England in 1825 by Mathew Henry who used it to comment on 1 Thessalonians 4. However, the word “Rapture” didn’t really become popular until William Eugene Blackstone’s book “Jesus is Coming,” which was published in 1878, and which sold more than 1.3 million copies.

In America, the term became associated with the religious group called the Millerites who had predicted the “Second Advent” of Jesus to occur in Missouri between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The Millerites had formed in a part of upstate New York in the 1830’s which was called the burned-over district. Coincidently this is the exact same place and time that the Mormon’s formed, and they too believe that Jesus’ return will occur in Missouri.

The failure of Jesus to return to earth in 1844 was the beginning of the end for the Millerites. Apparently Joseph Smith was the only one smart enough not to stick a firm date to when Jesus would return to Missouri. But out of the ashes of the Millerites, came our modern-day 7th Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And yes, all three of the “Great American Religions” stemmed out of the burned-over district of upstate New York in the 1830’s.

Simply put, the “Rapture” is not biblically supported, and is a very modern Christian precept with a history going back only to the 19th century. So where did Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins get their “Rapture” ideas that spawned 16 best-selling novels? Like most Christian dogma it’s pure imagination, and very little Bible.

source: http://www.atheistconnect.org

Your Sunday Devotional 8/7

2011-08-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. ~Bertrand Russell

It is an interesting place to begin. "If there was a God", that is. If there was a God, did he endow humans with inquisitiveness and such profound truth seeking logical mental processes just to condemn those who make the best use of those abilities? If there was a God, would he be insulted by those who reject blind faith while seeking evidence based truths? Do omnipotent beings need to be insulted? If there was a God, would he reward those who close their minds by blindly accepting dogma and indoctrinating their children into dogmatic submission such that their innately inquisitive minds are silenced as adults? Silenced by the promise of eternal bliss and the fear of eternal torture? Really?

Bertrand Russell was a philosopher and social critic that came from a perspective of logic.

3rd Grade Hate Mail to Science

2011-08-03T19:56:00.001-07:00

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Hate Mail from Third Graders

Emerson's exclamations!!!
November 6, 2006
Emerson York's letter to Neil came packaged with a stack of similar missives written by Mrs. Debbie Dalton's third-grade class in the Warren L. Miller Elementary School, in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. Note the teary-eyed planets at bottom.
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Your Sunday Devotional 7/10

2011-07-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

That is a Sensitive Spot

2011-07-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

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Donut Seeds

2011-07-08T19:30:00.001-07:00

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Peeps Need to Make a Living Too

2011-07-08T19:19:00.001-07:00

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Your Sunday Devotional 7/3 Mindfulness in the Spiritual Brain

2011-07-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

"Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it." Sylvia Boorstein
I think that it is within these mindful moments that neural pathways in our brains that control our consciousness and self awareness are opened to the sensations of enlightenment we call spirituality.

People tend to think too much, to overthink every situation, to waste life concerned about past events or future possibilities. Learning to turn off this stress, which has exploded in twentieth century western culture (primarily), is a key to living a fulfilling life.

Your Sunday Devotional 6/26

2011-06-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Spirituality lies within, an amazing biological process of our miraculously complex brains. So to seek a spiritual experience requires looking inward, not to anything outside yourself.

Guess What! Everyone is Not Like You.

2011-06-22T16:12:00.001-07:00

Introverts, especially INTJs like myself, are not defective people. We are an elite minority that doesn't always rise to social norms and expectations because of our mental constructs, and as such, we are sometimes misunderstood and judged harshly.

Amplify’d from jerrybrito.org

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
(Source: carlkingcreative.com)

Top ten myths about introverts

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
(Source: carlkingcreative.com)
Read more at jerrybrito.org

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Thanks for the Music Big Man

2011-06-20T19:29:00.001-07:00

From collaborating with Lady Gaga and appearing in one of her videos, to being characterized on an episode of The Simpsons, to being part of the greatest show on earth, a late 70s Springsteen concert...The Big Man will be missed and belongs in the RR Hall of Fame!

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Clarence Clemons, The Big Man In The E Street Band, Has Died

by Marc Hirsh

Clarence Clemons, saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, has died of complications of a stroke. He was 69.
Read more at www.npr.org

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Your Sunday Devotional 6/19

2011-06-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Simple molecules combine to make powerful chemicals. Simple cells combine to make powerful life-forms. Simple electronics combine to make powerful computers. Logically, all things are created by a combination of simpler, less capable components. Therefore, a supreme being must be our future, not our origin!
-- Scott Adams (Dilbert author), from a comic strip (Dilbert's dog speaking)

The Beatles Before Crossing Abbey Road

2011-06-13T20:12:00.001-07:00

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The Beatles Before Crossing Abbey Road

It's a moment like this that you realize these legends were just normal guys. Waiting for their historic photo op across Abbey Road in St John’s Wood, they look nervous, excited, frazzled (or whatever you perceive). To me, they simply look human.
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Back in the Day, When Politics Was More Than Ten Second TV Snippets

2011-06-10T18:49:00.001-07:00

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The 5 Most Badass Presidents of All-Time

By:
Daniel O'Brien
February 15, 2008
6,647,406 views

Andrew Jackson

On one occasion, he challenged a man named Charles Dickinson to a duel, (the reason behind it wasn't important, not to us and certainly not to Jackson), and Jackson was even kind enough to give Dickinson the first shot. We're gonna go ahead and repeat that: In a duel with pistols, Jackson politely volunteers to be shot at first. Dickinson happily obliged and shot Jackson, who proceeded to shake it off like it was a bee sting. When Jackson returned the favor, Dickinson was not so lucky, and that's why his face isn't on the twenty.
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JS Wisdom

2011-05-10T18:26:00.001-07:00

Jon Stewart is in the best position in the media to be listened to and to have a profound influence on thinking. While he frequently diminishes his satirical forum as being purely entertainment, not to be confused with news, the fact is that satire has always been an art form in moving forward agendas. Entertaining? Yes. Hilarious? Most of the time! Influential? Most certainly. Whether you agree with him politically or not, Stewart is a genius, both intellectually and comedically. That rare combination is the stuff of satire that will stand the test of time: a little Will Rogers, a touch of Mark Twain, and an irreverent Carlinesque twist. While the influence of "news satire" is more a commentary on the intellect of the public at large, the subtle blurring of deadpan reality with acerbic commentary requires a cleverness that at the same time supports the intellectual prowess of the audience. More subtle than Bill Maher and more likable than Dennis Miller, Stewart has found a domain all his own.

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Pants on the Ground

2011-04-28T19:12:00.001-07:00

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Frank Zappa on The Garden of Eden

2011-04-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The
fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All
the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on.
You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth
shut and hadn't asked any questions."
-- Frank Zappa, interview, Playboy, May 2, 1993

Classic Lyrics vs Modern Lyrics

2011-04-28T18:43:00.001-07:00

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funny grafitti

2011-04-27T17:58:00.001-07:00

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social graffiti

2011-04-27T17:53:00.001-07:00

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Kiss Me

2011-04-26T15:05:00.000-07:00


Electron Microscope view of bacteria living on the surface of a human tongue.

Amazing Scanning Electron Microscope Pictures

from the book ' Microcosmos', created by Brandon Brill from London. This book includes many scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of insects, human body parts and household items.
These are the most amazing images of what is too small to see with the naked eye.

Ever feel like this?

2011-04-25T20:43:00.001-07:00

I Am Lucky to Know So Many Great Teachers

2011-01-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

There is so much negative press about the quality of teachers, and teachers are so often the easiest target when things are not going well. This is the sad myopic reality despite irrefutable evidence that teachers are more effective and scientific about their practice than ever, and that failures in public schools are just another symptom of general struggles of our changing society, with student performance almost inextricably correlated to various poverty indicators, parent education level, single parent households, English proficiency, home stability, etc.

Even in the most challenging circumstances, the ones that frequently result in fatalistic or unmotivated children, good teachers are touching lives and making changes every day. I see them doing it over and over again, and anyone who has spent any time in an elementary school has seen it too. The first question to ask a critic of public education is, "How much time have you spent in a public school lately?" If a critic has not spent enough time in a school to know some teachers, to watch them work, and to really get to know some kids, then they are unqualified to make any judgment about the quality of teachers, period. Are the tremendous efforts of teachers enough to overcome the baggage that students bring? Probably not, at least not in every case. Poverty can consume a child's will very quickly and forming the kinds of enduring relationships in a classroom that restore motivation and will doesn't always happen as quickly as we would like. But, I have seen it done repeatedly by good teachers.

Good teachers know that academic growth begins with relationships and connections. It wasn't always that way, and it still isn't in the wealthiest schools. Not that the teachers in private and wealthy schools don't form relationships, it is more that they don't have to. It is not a requirement for their kids to get high test scores. In fact, most of the kids in the wealthiest districts and the private schools would learn just as well from college interns who open up a curriculum guide and simply deliver the material, give the homework, and administer the tests. I have seen those wealthy district teachers walk into a more challenging setting with 25 years of high test scores under their belt and fail miserably. The typical refrain:
"I taught them, they didn't get it."
"I gave him detention and I called his mother, but he is out of control."
"He doesn't do any work, I am giving him an F, maybe that will change his attitude." etc.
They don't get it...relationships and connections.

Good teachers:
--change their practices when they don't work
--are eager to learn different ways of delivering content
--know what interests their kids and are clever about connecting most any content to their world
--can see the world from other than their middle class college endorsed points of view
--constantly research and experiment to learn the best practices for their students
--seldom teach the same lesson the same way twice
--reflect on their practice endlessly
And these real teachers:
--would be effective without a curriculum guide or a teacher guide
--would be effective in a classroom without any technology
--would be effective without a formal school discipline program
--would be effective in managing most behavior with no administrator in the building
--would be effective without grades
--would be effective without homework
--would be effective at motivating most kids without stickers, bonus bucks, candy rewards, gold stars, or any other artificial reward system
--would work just as long and hard without a teacher's union or tenure

Not that we should do any of those things, they all have their place. But none of them are essential for a teacher to be effective, if they are truly a teacher. In my experience in the elementary schools, especially those that exist in challenging environments where kids are influenced by tremendous social stresses that most middle class people do not innately understand, I see real teachers succeeding every day. I see students progressing incrementally and overcoming hardships that few of us have had to deal with even as adults. Are they scoring as high as the kids in the wealthy schools? No, not in most cases. However, this is no reflection on the teachers who work with them, nor is it a reflection on the ability of the students, who are works in progress and diamonds in the rough that someone needs to take the time to polish to a nice glittering gem. I know real teachers do just that every day, and they are the majority.

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing

2010-11-11T14:45:00.000-08:00

As this holiday season approaches, and we are increasingly inundated with Sunday papers fat with advertising fliers and television ads methodically and scientifically constructed to push our "buy buttons", it is important to recognize the science of the sale. As colored lights, familiar icons, and melodies return us to our childhood, it is imperative to realize the retail reason for the season is to separate you from your money by systematically massaging the electronics and chemistry of your brain.

--Sizemore

This summary content was clipped from http://www.martinlindstrom.com. The full article can be read here.

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing ONE VIEWPOINT

I’ll admit, the notion of a science that can peer into the human mind gives a lot of people the willies. When most of us hear ‘brain scan’, our imaginations slither into paranoia. It feels like the ultimate intrusion, a giant and sinister Peeping Tom, a pair of x-ray glasses peering into our innermost thoughts and feelings.

Project Buyology applied the stiffest research regulations and standards and mapped rules that other global studies might adopt in the future. The business community needs to be aware of what can and can’t be done in the brain scanning research environment.

An organization known as Commercial Alert, which has petitioned Congress to put an end to NeuroMarketing, claims that brain-scanning exists to “subjugate the mind and use it for commercial gain.”

While I have enormous respect for Commercial Alert and its opinions, I strongly believe they are unjustified.

But I don’t believe NeuroMarketing is the insidious instrument of corrupt governments or crooked advertisers. It is simply an instrument used to help us decode what we as consumers are already thinking about when we’re confronted with a product or a brand — and sometimes even to help us uncover the underhanded methods marketers use to seduce and betray us without our even knowing it.

After all, don’t marketers want to provide products that we fall in love with? Stuff that engages us emotionally, and that enhances our lives? Seen in this light, brain-scanning, used ethically, will end up benefiting us all. Imagine more products that earn more money and satisfy consumers at the same time.

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing ANOTHER VIEWPOINT

This summary content was clipped from http://researchaccess.com. The full article can be read here.

Remember, neuromarketing is all about using MRIs and brain scans to read the unconscious mind and find out what is going on in the consumer’s head that they themselves don’t know; and then take advantage of that knowledge and of course the consumer. If there is significant evidence that dopamine output is a causality of impulsiveness and impulsiveness leads to impulse purchasing of products that aren’t needed, well you can be sure some marketers and researchers are going to attempt to find a way to produce commercials and advertisements that increase dopamine output. And if someone figures it out, you can be sure they’ll just increase ripping off dump people.

As a professional marketer or researcher you need to decide where your ethics rest on the use of these brain scans, MRIs and such for research. When a client comes to you and asks about your use of neuromarketing within research and what your position is, how do you answer?

Think about this. If we can figure out the likelihood of being a criminal, then figuring out if a red box or blue box will cause a preference or not for sugared water, malt beverages or junk food is a chip shot. Remember, in research we’re looking for tendencies and preferences.

This summary content was clipped from http://researchaccess.com. The full article can be read here.

Supposed you showed 100 people a red box and blue box and asked them which product they would buy and there was a preference for the red box. I think we’d all say that is OK. But let’s say you put the same 100 people through an MRI and found there is actually a greater preference, not for the red box, but for the blue box since certain parts of the brain light up, and that the panel of people themselves didn’t even realize this unconscious preference. Is that ethical usage of research?

What if you were in Las Vegas and the house knew through neuromarketing research, that gamblers had a preference for machines that went bing versus bong and they gambled more. Yet you did not know about this general preference that people, perhaps even you, were unconsciously influenced by this. Would you be comfortable with that? Would you think that was ethical?

What Testing Does to Good Teachers---John Spencer

2010-10-24T18:14:00.001-07:00

What Testing Does to Good Teachers

I'm not a great teacher. I'm not winning awards and standing on
podiums and pontificating on the power of pedagogy in a TED talk.
However, I'm not a bad teacher, either. I'm proud of my students'
Social Voice Blog and our documentaries and murals and various creative
ventures. I work hard and enjoy teaching in the process.

However, for one week each quarter I become a nervous wreck. The
students participate in a drill-and-kill test designed for people to
judge me and to judge them...

...It doesn't help when people say, "You're fine. You have nothing to
worry about." Wrong. If I have "nothing to worry about," then what
would happen if the scores were low? Last time I checked, teachers
with low scores received "additional support" in the form of experts
who walked in with clip boards and left notes telling them how to spend
more time using the resources in the basal curriculum binders.

Clipped from Spencer's Scratch pad--Read the entire article here!!!!

My 74 Year Old Mother Was a Crime Victim--Can You Find This Person?

2010-10-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

In this video, my mother describes how criminals worked together to steal her wallet in a department store and proceeded to charge $3000 just minutes later. Perhaps you recognize these people and can help to stop this madness that victimizes the elderly ( a term that my mother hates, by the way).

Fibonacci Fowl-- Math Humor at Its Best

2010-10-03T06:32:00.001-07:00

Fall Hawk Migration in Pennsylvania

2010-09-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't take any of these photos. In fact, when I go to observe birds, I seldom take a camera because I am focused on making identifications and observing behaviors. Every fall, beginning in late August and continuing through December, largely unnoticed by almost everyone, one of the greatest spectacles of nature in North America takes place. This spectacle is the raptor migration, and I have borrowed some photos from various nature wikis to create a photo log of this event

I generally drive about 35 miles up route 74 from York PA to Blue Mountain, which is the same long mountain that has the Hawk Mountain complex. The birds that travel the updrafts along the Blue Mountain Ridge at Hawk Mountain are the same ones that pass this spot about two hours later. The difference is, my spot has fewer than 20 observers and no amenities except for a porta-potty.

Birds traveling the east-west ridge at this point are almost all headed west, where in about 50 miles, the mountains of PA turn sharply southward and blend into the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the migration continues south. Some birds do move east and follow the Susquehanna River through Harrisburg and York to the Chesapeake Bay.

Here is the view from the ridge, which offers about 60 miles visibility to the north and south.

And here is what I see when I go.

This is a group of migrating Broad Winged Hawks, called a kettle. They catch the updraft that results when prevailing winds strike the mountains, circle upwards to gain altitude, fold their wings and glide for a mile or more, and repeat the process. Broad wings are the most numerous species in September and a kettle can be 3 birds, or on lucky days, one will see kettles of hundreds of hawks.

Here is a typical binocular view of a broad winged hawk, identified by its broad mostly unmarked wings outlined in black, and the tail stripes.

The other most frequently see hawk is the crow sized sharp shinned hawk. A typical day will turn up one of these every couple of minutes. This great photo (see copyright) shows the broad winged followed by a "sharpie", which occurs often in peak migration. The sharp shinned is smaller, tiny head, and longer narrow tail. They also fly much differently and you will be an expert at identifying them after about 5 minutes with an experienced birder.

And this is what it looks like as it stalks your bird feeder. This is where sharp shinned hawks are most frequently seen outside of migration.

Here is a Cooper's Hawk, which looks almost identical to the sharp shinned except for a much larger "hawkish head" and a rounder tail. I see 2 or 3 on a typical day.

I almost always see bald eagles, although in PA they are just as likely to be local birds and not migrants, especially near the Susquehanna where I live. It takes a few year for them to get the familiar plumage, and immature eagles are often confused with other hawks. The massive heads, necks, and bills are the best clues.

Ospreys are also generally a sure thing as well up until mid October. They are long winged like the eagles, but they typically show a bend mid-wing. and are light below.

Red tailed hawks are also a sure bet, especially in October. The problem is, the red tail isn't always apparent from below, and immatures don't have red tails.

The Kestral is the only common falcon, and they are seen daily.

Now for the ones that I don't see often or at all!

The N. Harrier, with its owl face and rusty underparts becomes relatively common the end of October. It is peculiar, almost moth-like in flight and is a very interesting raptor in appearance and in its hunting habits.

The red shouldered hawk, a dime a dozen in Florida, is hard to find here. The reddish wings are not always a dependable field mark and the shape and tail remind me of a broad winged hawk.

I have never seen the golden eagle, but they are spotted every November on the PA ridges. So I hope to see my first this year.

The merlin is a small falcon and I see a handful in a year.

It is always cool to see the fastest animal on the planet, the Peregrine Falcon. I have seen one this year and they are amazing to watch.

The Goshawk is a big, agile, fast hawk of the north woods. I have seen one (in Maine) in my life, although they are seen on the Blue and Kittatinny ridges in PA, just not by me.

The rough legged hawk is a winter resident in PA, so they are reported on the ridges through the winter. They are pretty rare, I have seen just one in my life. The adult looks pretty distinctive from the view in the picture.

It doesn't matter where you live in North America, there is a hawk migration spectacle near you! Check it out. at Hawk Migration Association of North America where the map below is live and clickable.

Media Fail

2010-09-26T15:16:00.001-07:00

Gotta have a white ho

I guess that explains the baggy pants.

In fairness, the headline was probably Detroit Blows Lead, or Detroit Blows It. But give the juxtaposition of the players, tampering with the headline was inevitable.

Maybe a translation error...???

Oweee! That's gotta hurt. Sports fans know his name is pronounced the same way as cologne, so it is funnier to non fans.

Hmmm-sounds illegal. Of course, the head job is the most prestigious coaching position one can hold.

The Original Hairy Buff Straight from the ΑΞΔ Sorority House

2010-09-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

There have been many concoctions reported to be the original Hairy Buffalo, the infamous frothy flamingo-pink college beverage whose name was shortened to Hairy Buff because it seemed to cause rampant nudity, even in the dead of winter at various Ohio sorority houses. Even the ΔΔΔ's, famous for blondness, money, and prettiness, have succumbed to the temptations of the Buff, resulting in stories of a lifetime for many average Joes who would otherwise have been deemed invisible by Tri-Delt snobbery.

Believe it or not, my brother has recently asked me for the recipe for this Pink Poison, the roseate remnants of which still stain the walls and rugs of dorms across America. I don't know whether he has a line on a sorority's 25 year reunion or what, but I aim to please. Keep in mind, I do not endorse this beverage, even though I was the keeper of the formula for awhile. In fact, I never drank the stuff. I carried my keg cup and kept it filled with beer as the others partook. This left me in an objective position from which I could judge the utter effectiveness of the Buff as a party icebreaker. I believe the secret is in the alcohol saturated fruit, which tends to sneak up on those who snack on it. The result is...well decadent and perhaps hedonistic...like the end of the Roman Empire.

With the aforementioned caveats, here is the recipe to the best of my recollection:

HAIRY BUFF

To make 2 gallons of Hairy Buff (you will need a 5 gallon size bucket because the floating fruit takes up volume)

Slice a bag of apples (and other porous fruit to taste)--soak overnight in 5th of Vodka or Everclear Grain Alcohol if you can get it.
1 Gallon of red Hawaiian punch (or which ever flavor punch you find least objectionable coming back up)
2 liter bottle Mountain Dew
Mix fruit, Mountain dew, and punch and add two more 5ths of alcohol (3 total counting the one with the fruit). Throw a couple of ziplock bags with ice in them to keep the buff mix chilled.
Drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream in an 8 ounce cup with a few ice cubes. Pour the buff mix over the ice cream to form a pinkish froth in the glass.
Toss in a couple of fruity pieces. A lime slice and an umbrella are nice too.

If you use Vodka, the strength is about 12% alcohol---like a glass of wine. Adjust to taste.

If you find Everclear 190, the strength is more like 25% alcohol or 50 proof, which is strong enough to require caution!

Bush Fucked

2010-09-12T18:40:00.001-07:00

Pitch Correction--Taking the U (you) Out of Music

2010-09-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone has heard how software can turn a commercially viable artists like Taylor Swift, into pitch perfect singers. Her live performances without pitch correction have often left her fans going "huh?'(those who can hear pitch anyway). The effect can be used live btw, but the automatic version of pitch correction requires you to sing fairly close to the correct note, lest your note be corrected to a completely wrong note. The effect is really resposible for the "Glee Sound", a rich and full chorus so perfect that it is more like the sound of an ensemble of perfectly tuned brass and woodwind instruments than the sound of people singing. It is a beautiful and compelling sound, but not really human. We have to remember that much of the feeling of a vocal performance comes from moments off pitch. Just listen to Norah Jones skirt around the correct notes or Billie Holiday slide up to a note, the glissando jazz/blues signature. Real artists can use pitch in subtle ways to communicate feeling---the essence of singing to me.

A Photo a Day--Jamie Livingston's Photologue

2010-08-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

Jamie Livingston took a single picture every day with a Polaroid camera from 1979 until the day of his untimely death in 1997. The collection, dated in sequence, has been organized by his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid into an exhibit at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College called "Photo of the Day", which... opened in 2007. The 6000 + photo collection documents a life and New York in an unusually poignant way. Jamie's final days in 1997 include a wedding, as well as some pictures that reveal his ongoing battle for life. Look at the beginning and look at the end, then go back and look at a few from the middle. Then Google if you want to know more about this guy and how he spent 18 years committed to taking one picture a day of his life.

Some Photographs of That Day

- Larry Sizemore
  
  In fact--Take 5-10 minutes to look through the 1997 pictures---note the good days--the bad days-the friends--the humor-the medicine-the food-the wedding ring on 10-5. It is both sad and happy and the story will leave you teary eyed however ...you interpret the photos. Keep in mind the rules--one picture a day, no matter how it turns out. Jamie is the round faced man with the black hair, which means that he sometimes handed the camera to a friend and directed the shot of the day. This story is best told from 1997, which will leave you wanting to know how it all started. Here is the link to the 1997 pictures http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/1997.htm#1997/1

Jamie’s photos at an exhibition at Bard College, in 2007 taken by Tom Boettcher

Jamie Livingston started to shoot a Polaroid a day when he was a Senior at Bard Collge in 1979. He is now deceased, as documented in his last photo from 1997 (the year I graduated from Bard). However, each image is documented on his site. I also studied photography at Bard, where I even convinced the head of the department Stephen Shore to let me have a tutorial in Polaroid photography for the full college credit of a regular photo class. It was an expensive medium, but the sweet thrill of seeing your image immediately made it all worth while. Now that I carry a digital camera I have almost forgotten the sheer bliss of that magic moment of watching a photo develop before my eyes. Go get lost in his lush visual diary.

OTHER LINKS TO THE STORY
The Guardian

Wikipedia

Only the Blog Know Brooklyn

Benatlas

Ten things I know about the mosque By Roger Ebert---annotated commentary by Larry Sizemore

2010-08-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Ten things I know about the mosque

By Roger Ebert on August 19, 2010 9:36 PM

| Permalink

| Comments (454)

1. America missed a golden opportunity to showcase its Constitutional
freedoms. The instinctive response of Americans should have been the
same as President Obama's: Muslims have every right to build there.
Where one religion can build a church, so can all religions.
The right to build there was never the issue. I fully agree with all of Roger's point here. AT this point, it would be equally inflammatory to build a Christian Community Center in that spot.

2. The First Amendment comes down to this: "I disapprove of
what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." It
does not come down to: "The First Amendment gives me the right to
repeat the N-word 11 times on the radio to an inoffensive black woman, and when you

attack me for saying it, you are in violation of my First Amendment rights."
This is the crux of the First Amendment, and the single most important value for free thinkers. Unfortunately, this is not an issue of freedom of anything. This is an issue of judgment. I defend the right of the people behind this project to show poor judgment.

3. The choice of location shows flawed judgment on the part of
its imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. He undoubtedly knows that now, and I
expect his project to be relocated. The imam would be prudent to chose
another location, because the far right wing has seized on the issue as
an occasion for fanning hatred against Muslims.

BINGO!! This has become a political issue, the "rightness" of which is not my issue. I have no opinion. The right wing is not the only party who has incorrectly reframed this project as a mosque. I read it in traditionally liberal media as well and was duped.

It has also narrowly reframed the project as a mosque, rather than a community center with a prayer room, which is what it would be. To oppose it on the grounds
that it is Muslim is religious prejudice and nothing else. The Muslims
who attacked the World Trade Center are not the Muslims who are
building the center.
This is certainly true. However I wonder whether this is a case of poor judgment or a case of someone with an agenda taking an opportunity to be divisive. Can you imagine that a committee of the developers had not entertained the issue of the WTC site being two blocks away. At the very least, it shows insensitivity. I will not have my suspicions be twisted into prejudice either, because I know there are Muslims who agree that this was an insensitive and inflammatory gesture.

4. One buried motive for the attacks on Park51 is exploitation of the
insane belief of 20% of Americans that President Obama is a Muslim.
Zealots like Glenn Beck, with his almost daily insinuations about the
Muslim grandfather Obama never knew and the father he met only once,
are encouraging this mistaken belief.

Glenn Beck is pure theater...an actor. He is a ratings whore who survives by manipulating his audience through drama.

5. The Bill of Rights has a parallel with pregnancy. You can't be a
little pregnant, and you can't be a little free. Nor can you serve
yourself from it cafeteria style.

6. Somewhere on the Right is an anonymous genius at creating memes.
Sarah Palin floats a suspicious number of them: Death Panels, Ground
Zero Mosque, 9/11 Mosque, Terror Babies. Her tweets are mine fields of
coded words; for her, "patriot" is defined as, "those who agree with
me." When she says "Americans," it is not inclusive. These two must
have been carefully composed in advance to be tweeted within 60 seconds
of each other:

By using the evocative word "shackles" she associates Dr. Laura's
use of the N-word with the suffering of slaves. By implying Dr. Laura
was silenced by "Constitutional obstructionists," she employs the
methodology of the Big Lie, defined in Mein Kampf as an untruth
so colossal that "no one would believe that others could have the
impudence to distort the truth so infamously." She uses the trigger
word "reload" to evoke her support of Second Amendment activists while
attacking "activists" for evoking the First.
Interesting theories, although a genius in alliance with Palin is a little tough to swallow.

7. Many Americans and a great many politicians have either never
taken a civics class or disagree with what they should have learned
there. The major opinion sources in America that seem to devote the
most attention to the Bill of Rights are Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and
Glenn Beck, all distorting it as an everyday practice. Bill O'Reilly,
to his credit, doesn't indulge in this.

8. A meme is infecting our society that Muslims are terrorists and
hate America; they are the enemy. It is a cliche to say, "the vast
majority of Muslims are peaceful," but is true. When Muslim nations are
bombed by America, can those nations be expected to applaud? In Iran
after 9/11 there were candlelight marches in sympathy with the United
States.

9. I find hope in the words of two American strippers interviewed
by the Wall Street Journal. Cassandra, who works at New York Dolls,
just around the corner from the proposed community center, said she
worried that calls to prayer might wake up the neighbors. The WSJ
writes: "But when she was told that the organizers aren't planning
loudspeakers, she said she didn't have a problem with the project: 'I
don't know what the big deal is. It's freedom of religion, you know?'"
An endearing insight...I would like to be persuaded or shown that the site was not selected because of its proximity to the WTC or that the conversation about proximity had never crossed anyone's mind.

Chris works in the Pussycat Lounge, even closer to the site. When
the airplanes struck the World Trade Center, Chris became a Red Cross
volunteer working with survivors. The WSJ writes she "sat on a barstool
in a tiny, shiny red dress and defended Park51. 'They're not building a
mosque in the World Trade Center. It's all good. You have your
synagogues and your churches. And you have a mosque.'" Chris lost eight
of her friends on Sept. 11, 2001, firefighters from the Brooklyn
firehouse she lived next to at the time, but "the people who did it are
not going to the mosque."
I would really like to hear from more of these people, people who really lost friends and who are not upset or suspicious about the proximity of the project. Hearing from the survivors and the loved ones of those killed or injured could in fact persuade me that my initial position was wrong and that I presumed too much about their emotions.

Cassandra and Chris reflect American values more instinctively and
correctly on this issue, let it be said, than Sarah Palin, Howard Dean,
Newt Gingrich, Harry Reid and Rudy Giuliani, who should know better.

10. I wonder how many Americans realize the community center is not
intended for Ground Zero. What will be constructed there includes a
55,000 square foot retail mall. This mall will be deep enough to
connect with subway lines -- deep enough, that is, to theoretically be
embedded in the ashes of some of the 9/11 victims.
This is perhaps the ultimate disgrace---a monument to our consumerism that few would complain about. Although the WTC was itself a symbol of a similar kind to the extremists who destroyed it. Roger is very hard to argue with!

What might have been more appropriate? On September 12, 2001, I wrote a little op-ed column:

A Green Field

If there is to be a memorial, let it not
be of stone and steel. Fly no flag above it, for it is not the
possession of a nation but a sorrow shared with the world.

Let it be a green field, with trees and flowers. Let there be paths
that wind through the shade. Put out park benches where old people can
sun in the springtime, and a pond where children can skate in the
winter.

Beneath this field will lie entombed forever some of the
victims of September 11. It is not where they thought to end their
lives. Like the sailors of the battleship Arizona, they rest where they
fell.

Let this field stretch from one end of the destruction to the
other. Let this open space among the towers mark the emptiness in our
hearts. But do not make it a sad place. Give it no name. Let people
think of it as the green field. Every living thing that is planted here
will show faith in the future.

Let students from all lands take a sunny corner of the
field and plant a crop there. Perhaps corn, our native grain. Let the
harvest be shared all over the world, with friends and enemies, because
that is the teaching of our religions. Let the harvest show that life
prevails over death, and let the sharing show that we love our
neighbors.

Do not build again on this place. No building can stand
here. No building, no statue, no column, no arch, no symbol, no name,
no date, no statement. Just the comfort of the earth, to remind us that
we share it.

[ 6:35 a.m. 8/20: Reworded #3 and #4 to remove my speculation abut the imam's thoughts. ]

[ Corrections: 4:53 p.m. 8/21/10: I added these words to
point #3:" It has also narrowly reframed the project as a mosque,
rather than a community center with a prayer room, which is what it
would be. To oppose it on the grounds that it is Muslim is religious
prejudice and nothing else. The Muslims who attacked the World Trade
Center are not the Muslims who are building the center." In #2, I
changed the word "shout" to "repeat." 6:19 p.m. 8/21: I changed
"mosque" to "community center" when realizing I was parroting the spin
of its opponents. ]

What if FOX NEWS had existed for all of history?

2010-08-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Mila's Daydreams I'd like to see into your dreams, my little girl.

2010-08-11T19:18:00.001-07:00

I used to introduce myself as a copywriter & concept designer in advertising, but that's not that relevant anymore. Right now I am a mother and a housewife, and loving it!

This blog is my maternity leave hobby. While my baby is taking her nap, I create scene around her and take quick snap photos.

I use only few minutes per picture, including creating idea, implementation and editing, 'cause I don't want to disturb her sleeping
and most of my time is for my family. My camera is small and inexpensive- Canon IXUS 750.

Mila Had a Little Lamb

The Laundry Day

Autumn leaves of gingerbread tree

see the rest here

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

2010-08-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Larry Sizemore
This is an eloquent description of doctoral research. I have imagined
that as one focuses so intently on expanding a tiny fraction of our
knowledge, that maintaining a global perspective can become a
challenge. These little circles demonstrate that phenomenon in few
words. I still haven't given up on the idea of pursuing the doctorate,
but I will have to be persuaded that an education PhD has some power to
change the very system that endorsed it, and that it wouldn't be just
the pinnacle of a failing system.

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

matt.might.net

Hot Zone Scary Stuff---Screwing Around With Viruses Freaks Me out!

2010-08-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Finding a Medical "Silver Bullet" to Disable Many of the World's Deadliest Viruses
By Bob Roehr

Benhur Lee may have discovered a medical silver bullet that can disable
pandemic HIV, exotic Ebola, the common flu and possibly every kind of
enveloped virus on the planet. An added bonus is that those viruses
likely are unable to develop resistance to the compound.

Lee is an expert on the viral envelope, the dynamic outside surface of
a virus that latches onto a cell, then changes its shape to let the
virus enter and infect the cell. This work began as part of a
biodefense grant from the National Institutes of Health, screening a
library of 30,000 compounds for activity against the envelope of Nipah virus, an emerging infection first identified in 1999 in Malaysia.
Nipah is so deadly that work with the virus itself can only be done in biosafety level 4
(BSL-4) labs where researchers wear tightly sealed hazmat suits with
internal oxygen supplies. The labs themselves are strongly secured.
There are only four in the U.S.

"The breadth of antiviral activity is fascinating but I fear that with
the underlying mechanism of membrane disruption, there might be a lot
more toxicity than is currently appreciated. Primary cells often are
much more sensitive than laboratory-adapted cells," Greene says.

He adds: "With this type of drug you are always going to be operating
in a window of whether or not the cell can catch up and keep the cell
alive while the drug is still being effective against the virus. It
will be a race." That is the same principle behind many current
therapies for cancer.

VIRAL WAR: A new compound shows antiviral action against a number of lipid-envelope viruses including Ebola, Nipah and HIV.
iStockphoto

Ken Robinson Speaks on Schools Educating Children Out of Their Creative Capacity

2010-08-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ken Robinson is a very funny presenter and an expert in creativity. He believes that creativity in schools needs to be seen as equal to literacy. Ken clearly understands how schools work and provides very compelling and entertaining arguments about how our school schema is antiquated and does nothing to prepare children for the future. In fact, our schools send messages that devalue some of the very tools that children will need to succeed, and that intelligence is a much broader idea than we realize.

Original Post Here

NCLB---The Fantasy Will Always Surface Somewhere

2010-08-11T04:37:00.001-07:00

No Child Left Behind was always outrageously idealistic according to most educators. Here is another more subtle side effect of the program, which pressures schools into graduating students, some would say, without adequately preparing them for life beyond high school.

U.S. lags behind its rivals in college degrees, especially in the south

By Sal Gentile
August 9th, 2010

A decade ago, the United States was the world’s leader in producing college students with bachelor’s degrees — an indicator, analysts say, of long-term economic strength.
Today, the U.S. ranks 12th — in the key age range of 25 to 34 — behind nations like Russia and South Korea.
For years, the focus among lawmakers and university officials has been on improving minorities’ and low-income students’ acceptance rates, rather than their ability to finish and obtain degrees. That approach has produced a seemingly paradoxical trend in which more first-time students are attending college, but less are completing college with degrees in hand.

Read entire article

WHat Do We Really Know? The Science of Blindsight

2010-08-10T19:31:00.001-07:00

Seeking the Source of Blindsight

By Kate Becker on August 9, 2010 10:56 AM |

Patients with a rare condition called blindsight are
blind due to damage to the primary visual cortex, the part of the brain
that consciously processes information from the retina. But when
scientists probe deeper, it turns out that these patients do have access to some visual information after all--they just aren't conscious of it.

Take a patient called TN. First, a stroke hit TN's left visual cortex. Then, barely a month
later, another stroke took out TN's right visual cortex, blinding him
entirely. But researchers had a suspicion that TN might have
blindsight. To test this hypothesis, they asked TN to walk down a
hallway without his cane. Though TN didn't know it, the hallway had
been strewn with obstacles that should have tripped him up. Watch what happened

Researchers hope that stroke patients could one day learn to consciously access the visual information captured by blindsight. It registers shapes, motion, and the orientation of objects, but can't pick up small details. It can make out the emotions expressed in human faces, but not the gender or identity of those faces.

What else do we know that we don't know we know?

Read complete article: Seeking the Source of Blindsight

The Perseids: Make A Party of It

2010-08-10T16:38:00.001-07:00

Perseid meteor shower 2010: Nasa says stargazers to enjoy dazzling space show

full article here

British stargazers are this week set for one of the most spectacular views of a meteor shower in recent memory, Nasa scientists say.

By Andrew Hough

Published: 9:30PM BST 09 Aug 2010

Space agency researchers say near perfect viewing conditions will produce
dazzling sights from this year’s finest, and most impressive, natural
fireworks show.

The show, due to peak later this week, is created from the earth
travelling through a river of debris from an ancient comet, which is
producing a display of shooting stars called the Perseids.

Scientists say the meteor shower will peak between Wednesday and Saturday with
amateur astronomers being able to see up to 100 meteors an hour alone on
Thursday night.

The highest rates are likely to be seen in the early hours of Friday morning.

Cat Food For People

2010-08-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

clipped from www.thesneeze.com

Potted Meat Food Product

There aren't too many products that feel the need to reassure you that they are, in fact, "food." Already not a good sign.

The list of ingredients is long and horrifying, coming right out of the gate with "MECHANICALLY SEPARATED CHICKEN." Oddly enough, I'm about to be separated from my lunch, and I haven't even opened the can yet.

Other ingredients include BEEF TRIPE, BEEF HEARTS, AND "PARTIALLY DE-FATTED COOKED PORK FATTY TISSUE" How does one de-fat fat? Bizarre. God knows what else is in here.

Okay, I'm going to go try it now. If i'm not back in ten minutes, call Poison Control...

FontSnobbery

2010-08-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

clipped from www.mcsweeneys.net

I'm Comic Sans, Asshole.

BY MIKE LACHER

Listen up. I know the shit you've been saying behind my back. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm immature. You think I'm a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I'm Comic Sans, and I'm the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

People love me. Why? Because I'm fun. I'm the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

It doesn't even matter what you think.

Cause I'm famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob.

I'm not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature

Enough of this bullshit. I'm gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

Kodachrome Gone-The end of an Era

2010-07-31T21:38:00.001-07:00

I recently expressed my blue mood regarding Kodak's decision to discontinue Kodachrome film. It may seem silly to non-photographers for one to emote in any fashion when discussing film, although Paul Simon did sing with as much passion about his Nikon camera loaded with Kodachrome as he did when he told us of Mrs. Robinson's secrets.

In the late 30s, Kodachrome began a media transformation of the same magnitude as typesetting and the Internet by bringing a colorful world beyond imagination into our homes. National Geographic Magazine would not be a household name if not for 50 years of Kodachrome.

Kodachrome's low ISO and unforgiving exposure latitude forced photographers to learn their craft. At the same time, the perfect colors, the expense of shooting Kodachrome, and the slow mail order only processing, forced photographers to learn their art, to visualize, to see like camera and film.

The end of Kodachrome is the exclamation point marking the end of an era of celluloid and emulsions, an organic analog medium that has no place in a digital world. I haven't used Kodachrome in 15 years or so, but the world seems a little gray to me, now that it is gone.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT www.dailykos.com

As the 1930s came to a close, Kodak came out with Kodachrome film – the first commercially viable color film available to the general public. In 1937 and 1938, the colors were still not stable and accurate, but by 1939 Kodachrome was producing color images of remarkable precision.

The Farm Security Administration sent out about a dozen photographers with this new film. Commercial photographer, Samuel Gottscho, and well-to-do amateur, Charles Cushman, embraced this new technology

And Charles Cushman had to take a photograph of his new coupe beside the recently-completed Golden Gate Bridge.

Mothers still made clothes for the kids – from flour and feed sacks - as with these girls at the Vermont State Fair.

The country store was the furthest many rural Southerners ever got.

Yet, Miami Beach was filled with northern vacationers.

Language Creates Differences In Children...Perhaps.

2010-07-24T18:33:00.001-07:00

The acquisition of language happens at a key point in brain development. Is there some quality of Japanese language that helps Japanese children to develop mathematical thinking? Is there a reason that bilingual children have overall higher IQs? Is there a cause and effect relationship between the fewer words spoken in poverty and the delays in learning found in poverty?

read the article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592767868.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_lifeStyle

clipped from online.wsj.com

Lost in Translation

New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish

Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express?

Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.

Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.

The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.

How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak.

Introverts unite! (Quietly.)

2010-07-24T17:59:00.001-07:00

How to live a quiet life in a noisy world
by Sophia Dembling
full article

clipped from www.psychologytoday.com

The Introvert's Corner
How to live a quiet life in a noisy world

by Sophia Dembling

Sophia Dembling is a widely published Dallas, Texas-based writer who is working on a book about traveling as an introvert. See full bio

August 26, 2009, Personality
Introverts unite! (Quietly.)

I am an introvert.

And, like my fellow introverts, I am sorely misunderstood.

Common wisdom says that America is a nation of extroverts and here, introversion is stigmatized. Parents worry about children who would rather play alone in their rooms than join the gang in the playground. Bookish teenagers are exhorted to break out of their shells. Adults are chastised if they would rather work alone than as team players.

Phooey.

Copyright 2009 Sophia Dembling

Thanks for visiting! There's lots more going on in The Introvert's Corner. Click here to take a look.

Does musical training reorganize the brain? What are the implications?

2010-07-24T16:24:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.psychologytoday.com

June 11, 2010, Neuroscience

Do musicians have different brains?

Increases in gray matter (size and number of nerve cells) are seen, for example, in the auditory, motor, and visual spatial areas of the cerebral cortex of musicians

As Dr. Oliver Sacks writes in his book Musicophilia, "Anatomists would be hard put to identify the brain of a visual artist, a writer, or a mathematician - but they could recognize the brain of a professional musician without a moment's hesitation."

Long-term musical training actually re-organizes the brain. Areas that are initially devoted to one type of function (vision), may be recruited to perform another (verbal memory).

Family Food Consumption... By Country

2010-07-20T17:04:00.001-07:00

I like how the Italian family's favorite food is frozen fish sticks, and the American family's favorite food is spaghetti!

clipped from www.6die.com

Family Food Consumption... By Country

Drop The Happy Meal Toys, Or We'll Sue

2010-06-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

What! No cheap ass plastic movie promotion toy that will be broken in 5 minutes only to end up in the black hole of the bottom of some toy box along with dozens of other cheap ass broken plastic commercials for Disney or Pixar?????? That is not happy at all.

clipped from www.npr.org

Consumer Group To McDonald's: Drop The Happy Meal Toys, Or We'll Sue

by April Fulton

Shrek might be sad if he's banned from McDonald's Happy Meals.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest declared today it would sue McDonald's if it doesn't stop marketing its wares with toys to young children.

"Not only does the practice mobilize 'pester power,' but it also imprints on developing minds brand loyalty for McDonald's," the group's letter to McDonald's says.

In other words, they're making our kids bug us to go there through toy tie-ins to the latest movies, and then they're hooking them on food that's high in fat, salt, sugar and calories.

Hello World

2010-06-21T17:31:00.001-07:00

brains?

2010-06-21T17:02:00.001-07:00

gun control

satan=santa

beautifully ugly

2010-06-19T19:32:00.001-07:00

the bimbo party

The Secret to 25 Years of Marriage

2010-06-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

    Since I am now in the Marriage Hall of Fame, I thought that I had a responsibility to share exactly how reaching the 25 year milestone has happened for me. The first ingredient is serendipity and just plain luck. While I would like to believe that it was my finely tuned ability to make such an important judgment in my late twenties, the fact is I was damned lucky to have stumbled across someone who would have me at precisely that point in life when one's brain sends out the "shouldn't I be married" signal. That serendipitous event wasn't even the clincher, I actually found someone who could tolerate me long term! I simply can't overemphasize the random luck involved in having a lasting marriage.
     Listen my hopeless romantics, there are no soul mates, only those who have a great deal of tolerance for one another. There is no potential partner out there that will not eventually cause you to be annoyed by the most trivial things. I personally possess a huge number of those latent seeds of irritation to which my spouse has been tolerant beyond reason. The second big factor in a long lasting relationship is that someone has to be tolerant, sometimes to the limits of people to be so.
    It is important not to confuse duration with durability in a long relationship. One might mistakenly infer that 25 years of marriage is indicative of durability, that is, the ability to endure any and all stresses that come along. However, much like when you see an old car on the road and think, "that must be a very durable vehicle", it is possible that the old car was only driven on Sundays around town. I think most long marriages sort of fit that analogy in that they are "low mileage" marriages where the partners don't drive themselves to be with one another every second. In fact, after 10 or 15 years, you may find that the engine doesn't even need to be started every day. I guess it all comes down to number 3, the idea of space...everybody needs some. People who can't function without their spouses suffocate one another and end up blowing the engine after a few years. Okay, not a perfect analogy; but it was fun traveling down that road.
Space is separate vacations, separate hobbies, separate sinks, separate TVs, separate lives to some degree! I know, it sounds counter to everything you want to believe about marriage, but it has worked for us. The experts would have you believe that long relationships are all about communication (in a whiny self-righteous tone), but communication is greatly overrated and not on my list. Of course there is sharing too, otherwise it isn't a relationship. But it isn't about sharing everything all the time. That is going back to that soul mate fantasy again...there aren't any (it bears repeating).
    I would be remiss to ignore the topic of sex, because it is definitely on the list at number 4. I will spare you the details out of respect for my wife...not to mention it would result in my not having the old engine started for a very long time. By the way, respect comes in at number 5 on the list. The list is not ranked in any order.
   The last ingredient on my list for a long lasting marriage: a thorough understanding of that whole Mars-Venus phenomenon. One caveat: these are very generalized ideas and certainly not true in all cases. In fact, the roles can even be reversed, but...Men are not women with penises, and vice versa...well not exactly vice versa, but you know what I mean. Our brains are different and we respond to different things in different ways. Did I emphasize different! Men are visual (so leave the light on sometimes), men can't multitask (so don't ask us to plan the weekend while we are watching a favorite TV show). Women can access virtually any part of their brains through emotions (advanced imaging has shown this) and need to feel connected and listened to (so be an active listener when those times come up...unless a game is on or something...kidding). Women desire partnerships and men can be content without feeling "at one" with a spouse (sorry, no parenthetical advice for that one). Men can be spoiled pigs and immature and may have difficulty coping with the seemingly unnatural concept of physical monogamy (yikes--not touching that one).
    Finally, I don't mean to lower expectations, but 25 years of wedded bliss is pretty much an oxymoron. It is more like 25 years of contentment, of being at peace with my choices, of realizing that I am lucky to have found someone who I respect, who makes me better person...almost a synergy. Is this love? Hell I don't know! I have the inferior male brain after all. Love is whatever we decide it is and nobody can define what it is for someone else.
    25 years is an accomplishment, whatever you decide to name it.

Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming.

2010-06-12T17:18:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.cosmosmagazine.com

Silent spring
Issue 21 of Cosmos, June 2008
by Lauren Monaghan
Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming.

TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide.

Sitting at the centre of the exclusion zone, the damaged reactor unit is encased in a steel and cement sarcophagus. It's a deathly tomb that plays host to about 200 tonnes of melted radioactive fuel, and is swarming with radioactive dust.

But it's also the abode of some very hardy fungi which researchers believe aren't just tolerating the severe radiation, but actually harnessing its energy to thrive.

"We have not ruled out all other explanations – science is always cautious. [But] our leading hypothesis continues to be that melanin captures the energy from radiation and transforms it into energy for growth."

How has Education Changed?

2010-06-12T08:55:00.001-07:00

Education Blogs to Read

2010-06-05T19:42:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.onlineschools.org

100 Blogs Every New Teacher Should Read

PBS Teaching Resource Center: This site for K-12 teachers is an environment where new teachers can feel safe asking questions, using free tools and printing lesson and activity plans for class assignments.

Teachers Count: TeachersCount is a national non-profit dedicated to raising the status of the teaching profession and providing free resources to teachers.

Learning is Messy: Brian Crosby has nearly 30 years of teaching experience under his belt, and he knows it isn’t always easy. But he’ll show you how he got through the tough times and give you plenty of motivation to do the same.

Successful Teaching: New teachers can get some ideas for successful classroom projects and strategies through this blog.

So You Want To Teach?: The posts here include solid advice for teachers.

EducationNews.org: Whether national or international, commentary, or breaking news, if it has to do with education, it will probably appear in this blog.

Dump Philosophy

2010-06-03T20:34:00.001-07:00

Sleep with your valuables---like me and my TV remote

2010-06-02T19:06:00.001-07:00

slacker

Those promiscuous primary colors!

2010-06-01T18:05:00.001-07:00

What Does Your Body Language Say About You?

2010-06-01T17:40:00.001-07:00

Dozens more at the site from which this was clipped.

clipped from www.jinxiboo.com

What Does Your Body Language Say About You? How To Read Signs and Recognize Gestures

I thought it would be fun to list some of the well-known signs that body language experts study and recognize. It is said that when talking to a person the information that we receive can be broken down as:

10% from what the person actually says

40% from the tone and speed of voice

50% is from their body language.

A false smile usually only engages the lips

Closing of eyes or pinching at the bridge of one's nose is often done when making a negative evaluation

Hand movements that are upward & outward signify positive and open messages

A wide stance - where one's feet are positioned far apart - signifies more power and dominance

One tends to blink more often if nervous or trying to evaluate someone else

Recalling a memory is usually done by looking up and to the right

Looking directly upwards can indicate that one is thinking

Here is a list of 10 free sites to discover new music.

2010-05-31T19:54:00.001-07:00

Here are 3 of the 10. If they are of interest, be sure to visit the site for the others.

clipped from www.makeuseof.com

Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online

Here is a list of 10 free sites to discover new music.

TuneGlue is straightforward and easy to use. Put in the name of a musical artist you like in the search bar and before you know it, you’ll have a whole web of musical artists that are in one way or another, similar to the band you started with.

A less flashy alternative to TuneGlue is Music-Map. While TuneGlue only initially suggests 6 similar artists, Music-Map instantly reveals all the similar artists in their database, with the most similar musicians closest to the original search term.

Music Roamer adds another dimension to music map sites, by not only providing suggestions of similar artists, but also allowing you to listen to music directly on their site. The songs are powered by YouTube videos, but it should be said, in our experience, all of the tracks were live versions, and not always of very good quality. They also provide links to purchase the mp3s from Amazon.

The Civil Cynic: Larry Sizemore

Ephemera

Sam With the Red Hat

Is that some kind of sign?

The Reason for the Season

Funny Bunny

The History of Earth as a Clock

Occupy Sesame Street 2011

Night Snow

10 Rules for being Human (That You Will Forget)

Churchill: I Wish I had Said That!

3. Winston Churchill Vs. George Bernard Shaw

4. Winston Churchill Vs. Lady Astor

7. Winston Churchill Vs. A Member Of Parliament

8. Winston Churchill Vs. Bessie Braddock

Facebook--do you suck?

Autocorrect Fail

Glenn Beck's Stage Office

Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought Published January 7, 2010 by Nikki

Social Neuroscience and the Soul’s Last Stand

Nuff Said

Alexander Graham Bell, I Hate You (confessions of a phone hater)

Fortune Cookie

Lessons From Children

Lessons From Children

Great Truths About Life That Little Children Have Learned

Redneck Fire Alarm

weekends

Weekends...

Dear ____________, Sincerely ___________

APublicServiceAnnouncementFromClintEastwood.jpg (500×333)

The Notorious William Posters

Your Sunday Devotional 8/21

Your Sunday Devotional 8/7

3rd Grade Hate Mail to Science

Hate Mail from Third Graders

Your Sunday Devotional 7/10

That is a Sensitive Spot

Donut Seeds

Peeps Need to Make a Living Too

Your Sunday Devotional 7/3 Mindfulness in the Spiritual Brain

Your Sunday Devotional 6/26

Guess What! Everyone is Not Like You.

Thanks for the Music Big Man

Your Sunday Devotional 6/19

The Beatles Before Crossing Abbey Road

Back in the Day, When Politics Was More Than Ten Second TV Snippets

JS Wisdom

Pants on the Ground

Frank Zappa on The Garden of Eden

Classic Lyrics vs Modern Lyrics

funny grafitti

social graffiti

Kiss Me

Ever feel like this?

I Am Lucky to Know So Many Great Teachers

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing

--Sizemore

This summary content was clipped from http://www.martinlindstrom.com. The full article can be read here.

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing ONE VIEWPOINT

The Ethics of NeuroMarketing ANOTHER VIEWPOINT

What Testing Does to Good Teachers---John Spencer

My 74 Year Old Mother Was a Crime Victim--Can You Find This Person?

Fibonacci Fowl-- Math Humor at Its Best

Fall Hawk Migration in Pennsylvania

Media Fail

The Original Hairy Buff Straight from the ΑΞΔ Sorority House

Bush Fucked

Pitch Correction--Taking the U (you) Out of Music

A Photo a Day--Jamie Livingston's Photologue

Ten things I know about the mosque By Roger Ebert---annotated commentary by Larry Sizemore

Ten things I know about the mosque

What if FOX NEWS had existed for all of history?

Mila's Daydreams I'd like to see into your dreams, my little girl.

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.

Hot Zone Scary Stuff---Screwing Around With Viruses Freaks Me out!

Ken Robinson Speaks on Schools Educating Children Out of Their Creative Capacity

NCLB---The Fantasy Will Always Surface Somewhere

No Child Left Behind was always outrageously idealistic according to most educators. Here is another more subtle side effect of the program, which pressures schools into graduating students, some would say, without adequately preparing them for life beyond high school.

WHat Do We Really Know? The Science of Blindsight

Dear __, Sincerely _

By Andrew Hough

Published: 9:30PM BST 09 Aug 2010