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Assignments

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10/21 Friday
As one progresses further into higher education the importance of having a keen grasp on just what plagiarism is and how to maintain academic integrity when writing papers gains importance. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as the act or practice of wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another as one’s own. The key idea is that you must credit your sources when including unique ideas of others; messing around with sentence structure alone and passing it off as your own won’t do. Still, I think no meaningful opinions or ideas can materialize out of thin air: to truly know what we’re talking about we must have done background research and sampled other’s views or takes on the topic. In that light all “unique” ideas have external influence to some extent. Anyhow, it’s best to play it safe when sampling other’s ideas without full personal input, and giving full credit to your sources.

10/20 Thursday
A design evaluation of the soon to debut Airbus380, the largest passenger airplane ever. This article fails to address whether the behemoth A380 will take over the Boeing747’s monopoly on the skies, and instead focuses on the A380’s strengths and possibilities. The bottom line: the common flier will never come across dreamy images of “tropospheric bubbling jacuzzis, stratospheric spas, mesospheric double beds, ionospheric cocktail bars” but will rather have to cope with the same perilous conditions of modern day economy class flight. Scale will always win over sheer speed and bulk will trounce beauty. The reasoning goes that the economical dynamics of mass world wide air travel make crammed seating (think: 850 passengers crammed into one plane!) inevitable. Still the overall tone is positive. I would counter-argue that luxurious/playful airlines such as Singapore and Virgin will eventually come out with interior layouts for the A380 that make good use of it’s ample space, realizing the “flying hotel” dream for the rich traveler.

10/19 Wednesday
A (not so timely) movie review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by David Edelstein@Slate. For those of you who listen to the “acclaimed critics” when deciding whether a movie’s worth seeing it or not, I highly recommend Edelstein over the more popular Ebert. That old fellow’s got way to much clout. Anyway… The argument goes that this Johny Depp/Tim Burton rendition of the classical Roald Dahl story outdoes the 1971 Gene Wilder version by far. Although there are a few shortcomings, namely Depp’s flat characterization of the ghoulish Wonka -whose perverse resemblance to Michael Jackson is a bit to eerie at times-, it comes out a winner in all other aspects. Tim Burton’s trademark strength in conjuring eye-candy sets and mis-en-scene shines stronger than ever. The seamless mixture of cgi along with Danny Elfman’s contribution in the soundtrack enhance the film even more. I’d make the counter-argument that the Oompa-Loompa’s mocking epitaph musicals chopped up the film’s flow too much for my liking, and that Depp’s performance captured the awkward and troubled Wonka persona just perfectly.

10/17 Monday
Remix on Stigmergy

Stigmergy is a term coined by Pierre-Paul Grasse in the 50s to describe the indirect and decentralized communication taking place among social insect societies such as termites, ants and wasps. What seems paradoxical at first is how each insect works as if alone while the collective nest appears coordinated, working towards a common goal. It is as if they’re activities were based on a building plan assigning each insect its own job. However, it appears that they respond to their gradually changing direct surroundings, the emerging structure in the case of nest reconstruction, and regulate behavior accordingly. Essentially, stigmergy is a means of coordination where local stimuli are organized in time and space to ensure an overall coherent adaptive structure while workers act independently, responding to stimuli from the environment’s common medium.

10/13 Thursday

I love this news article. How boring the world would be without the occasional delirious wacko.

Claim: Increasingly adverse weather in the US, including hurricane Katrina, is all attributed to Japanese yakuza manipulating the weather with some Russian electromagnetic altering device.
Reasons: Recent weather patterns have been abnormal from previous standards, plus Katrina and Ivan both sound Russian.
Counter-arguments: This Idahoan meteorologist bases his assumptions on mere hunches: he has no concrete evidence. Also, the idea ignores the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

10/12 Wednesday

Claim: One cause behind childhood obesity is the amount of TV watched; lengthy TV viewing times correlate with fatness.
Reasons: statistical research showing kids watching television for longer hours tending to be more obese
Counter-arguments: It’s illogical to pinpoint simply watching TV (short weekly hours of vigorous exercise) as a “cause” of obesity. A more sensible view is that they are all factors of an unhealthy lifestyle, along with poor dietary habits and so on.

10/11
Gotta love the Daily Collegian. Today's science & health section had a feature article about a research paper claiming that eating fish keeps your brain sharp. Anyone heard of this before? I've heard that DHA pills, extracted from shark liver oil and whatnot, can help brain development. There not that expensive, so a while back I actually tried taking them before studying for finals.... Anyway, fish such as salmon and tuna supposedly contain "omega-3 fatty acids" that slow down mental degradation in old age. Bottom line: eat more fish if you don't want to be forgetful and senile in your silver years. Evidence supporting this claim is all statistical, and looks pretty solid. Audience is anybody health-conscious enough to opt for fish over a fat bloody steak, once in a while. Counterarguements.... 10-13% slower annual decline doesn't sound convincing to a layman like me. Maybe if the sample body covered a different demographic group and they considered other factors affecting the brain, the results would be more suggestive.

10/10
Check out this article about three suicides commited by soldiers returning from service in Iraq. They had all served in the 10th Special Forces Group. At first there seems nothing to draw them together, but could there possibly be some harmful element in the situations they've been through that could've lead to there suicides? Two possible causes are suggested. First, there's the social stigma within their units, that prevents people from coming forward to seek help. Machoism. Secondly, an anti-malaria drug called Lariam is said to have negative psychological side effects. I suppose this article is aimed towards psychology community (if it exists!?) and families of men in service. It'd be must be hard to verify whether the harsh environment while in Iraq and the stigma to seeking counseling was the only cause of the suicides. Nonetheless the article had me convinced.

Thursday, 10/06/05
In connection with the Cambodia genocide I checked out this site http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/pol-pot.htm The Khumer Rouge (Red Cambodians) were a communist resistance that, directly and indirectly aided by the US, rose to power in the mid 70s. Once in power he tried to erect an agrarian utopia society, bringing out the worsts in communistic atrocities. It seems that historian’s would be quick to draw analogies between the Khumer Rouge and communism in Russia: Stalin in particular. They’d probably have a strong argument in doing so… but the horrific crimes he committed are just too repulsive I can’t stand to logically analyze it all. Even just reading about it was disturbing.

Tuesday, 9/27/05
How to make Vietnamese Pho Ga noodles
1. Gather all the ingredients and tools you’ll be needing: 2 pots, strainer, mini-strainer, chopsticks, bowl, dried rice noodles, chicken breast meat, bean sprouts, edible raw leaves such as spinach, salt, pepper, nuoc nam, sesame, shredded dried chili peppers, and a slice of lime.

2. Fill the two pots with 3 cups water each, set it them on your lighted stove tops and wait for it to boil. For best results use a gas stove.
3. While waiting for this, marinate your chicken with a dash of Japanese sake, cover in saran wrap and microwave for one and a half minutes.
4. Once done, slice the chicken into nice small morsels.
4. Also in the meantime chop up your vegetables to easily edible sizes. The bean sprouts in particular should be pre-boiled, so set them in a mini-strainer to be dipped into the heating water. They only need to be submerged for half a minute or so.
5. By now your water should have boiled. Reduce the stove’s heating setting to low, drop in the rice noodles and gently stir around with chopsticks to keep them from sticking to the pot’s sides.
6. 2 minutes is suffice time for boiling, so then remove pot from stove top and drain out its contents into your strainer over a sink.
7. Rinse out any excess rice paste sticking to the noodles with cold water from the tap.
8. Now quickly pour the boiling water from your second pot into the awaiting bowl. Add 2 teaspoon of dried chicken broth powder along with salt and pepper to make the broth to your taste.
9. Before anything cools off, carefully dump the boiled noodles into the broth.
10. To finish off the dish, garnish the noodles with your pre-prepared ingredients: the chicken pieces, bean sprouts, and diced spinach leaves. Sprinkle sesame seeds and shredded dried chili peppers on the side to suit your taste. A twist of lime finishes it off. A few drops of nuoc nam soy sauce add a distinctive aroma that perfects the dish.
11. Enjoy.

Monday, 9/12/05
Dialogue vs. Debate: how to define and where to draw the fine line?

Since we just recently discussed the importance of clearly defined terms in class, I thought it sound to begin with comparing dictionary definitions of the two. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Dialogue: a : a conversation between two or more persons; also : a similar exchange between a person and something else (as a computer) b : an exchange of ideas and opinions c : a discussion between representatives of parties to a conflict that is aimed at resolution

Debate: a contention by words or arguments: as a : the formal discussion of a motion before a deliberative body according to the rules of parliamentary procedure b : a regulated discussion of a proposition between two matched sides

No big surprises there, nor in how I personally view the relation of the two either. Generally speaking I believe that debate can be categorized as a specific form of dialogue, in part because it contains elements of the fundamentals of dialogue. You are firmly confident of a certain position or view that you guard, and try to defend your stance and maybe even convince your interlocutor to agree with you. This requires not only thorough reasoning on your own part but also attention to your opponent and an imagination to fathom their premises and conjure the best rhetorical approach to take. Dialogue on the other hand is more general. A dialogue can take place regardless of whether we agree or disagree on the subject matter, whether we’re close friends or utter strangers on the street, whether we’re out to just be friendly or seeking profound intellectual conversation. Can a debate exist in any form that is not a dialogue? Perhaps. I think that debates don’t necessarily unfold with each part paying close attention to the other’s last comment, but instead take a more detached stance and address in a more preachy tone. Taking that to the extreme, I guess a debate may become more like a one-sided persuasive speech, which no longer falls under a form of dialogue.

Seems like we’re supposed to be making clusters and all. Haven’t yet talked to many of you yet, so feel free to hit me up online at “justdoit072” Or in case you have MSN: kippysan@hotmail.com

Sunday, 9/11/05
I can still vividly remember where I was and how everybody reacted when the tragedy of 9/11 was unfolding four years ago. My roommate and I were relaxing as always in our dorm room when our neighbor burst in carrying a small hand-held TV. He coaxed us to peer into the tiny screen where the now infamous images of the WTC going up in smoke was pictured. Within a few minutes the dorm’s headmistress came upstairs and invited everybody over to her bedroom, where we sprawled out on the bed and stared with disbelief at CNN’s reports of the tragedy. Though a full four years have passed from that fateful day, during which two wars equally absurd as the acts of terrorism themselves were waged and still ongoing, the memory sticks with me as if it were just yesterday.

When our family stopped by at the WTC site in our touristy fashion this summer, it was slightly disappointing how the pace of reconstruction had been so slow. As an avid architecture fan I’m so thankful that the reconstruction plan chosen was the one it was; paying due respect to the lives lost while rebuilding a tower with might and triumph. Surely it will serve as a symbol of America’s enduring spirit and strength. But for tonight, my prayers go out to the 3,000+ victims families, and the families of all the soldiers who lost their lives futilely in Iraq.

Thursday, 9/1/05
Professor Crimmins was absolutely right in stating it up front in our first class that staring idly at a blank screen and waiting for some idea to pop up is NOT the proper way to write/compose.

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