Archive for the 'arguments' Category

Kitzmiller versus Dover Area School District (Intelligent Design)

Published by
gradster1
at December 4, 2007 in snow day, advances, starting, beliefs, snow, legal/illegal stuff, homework, controversial, December, intelligent design, humor, arguments, winter, facts, learning, school, religion, random, media, politics, high school, night, philosophy, education and Uncategorized. 4 Comments

It sounds like Super Smash Brothers at first (if you’ve ever played), as any good court case does - but this is the infamous discussion on the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.

What I know about ID (intelligent design) so far (PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong and feel free to add):

Intelligent design is a theory that came into use after the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District case on the teaching of “creation science” alongside evolution. It is based upon how complex life is. People who believe in ID believe that something as complex as, for example, a protein pump wouldn’t be possible without an intelligent being to guide the development of such things. ID is currently a very controversial topic - while some people believe that ID is valid and should be taught, others believe that ID is completely untrue. There are also many people in between who have many different views - one of these may be that ID is not necessarily true however to get a complete perspective students should be taught ID as one option, in case they choose to believe it.

Personally I believe intelligent design is a load of hooey (gotta love that word). To survive, creationism evolved into intelligent design. On a more practical note, we can actually see evolution in action in many types of bacteria.

I can see it from the other point of view though. How could little cellular machines like this do so much?

But then again there’s the obvious. Where else could fossils and geology and all the other evidence that’s rock hard (excuse the pun) come from? It’d be impossible for “non-believers” to fake something like fossils on such a large scale as this planet.

Jesus lovingly cradles a baby raptor.

Jesus lovingly cradles a baby raptor.

Do…. What?!

Published by
gradster1
at September 27, 2007 in starting, morning, advances, decisions, Twitter, Doxory, fall, September, facts, internet, media, bored, arguments and technology. 2 Comments

Ever had a situation where you’re dying for a poll on something and you need your results fast? After asking the parentals and maybe your siblings you have nowhere else to go!

Doxory

Fear no more! Doxory is here!

Doxory (despite the humble origins of the name, “Do… x? or y?,” Doxory is pronounced DOC-sor-ee) is a new web 2.0 app developed by the creators of Hiveminder, Best Practical. If you have used Hiveminder, you’ll know that Best Practical is an awesome company, catering to the needs of the online public.

Doxory is Twitter for choices. You basically tell people what you’re doing, then let them decide what you should do. If you don’t understand that, let me walk you through it. After signing up for an account, all you need to do is enter a question. My latest question was on “Using doxory”. Afterwards, you enter two choices, the x and the y of the question. My choices were “Use it and be done with it?” or “Get professional help as to why I’m asking the public about problems in my private life?” (the query has been up for a while, grabbing a few votes for both sides, but is still up in the air) As the site itself says, “The best kinds of questions to ask are existential dilemmas. What should I do with the next five years of my life? Go to grad school or Join the circus?” Doxory is also useful for trivial matter you have in your everyday life. Need help deciding what to have for dinner?
ask Doxory!

If you’d like to let your friends run your life, sign up!

Learning for the Future

Published by
gradster1
at September 4, 2007 in lazy, arguments, bored, high school, series, September, beliefs, advances, betaphor, starting, fall, teenagers, night, teachers, blogging, school, random, internet, technology, facts, learning, education, beauty, computers, politics, writing and Uncategorized. 1 Comment

In preparing students for the twenty-first century we need to educate them in certain ways. Skills in certain areas will be necessary because of recent advances in technology, for example, the human race will need to accept that computers and robots may do our jobs better than we do. In other words we must learn humility. Other skills will become the norm as well, for example it will be necessary in day-to-day life to have basic programming skills in all the major languages, we will also need to be able to service the hardware side of things too.

I believe this video is the newest version, correct me if I’m wrong. It was originally made by Karl Fisch (see his blog at The Fischbowl) for a presentation on how his high school should be teaching kids. It has been remade so many times it’s not even worth mentioning who else helped.

I’ve always loved this kind of video - words that shock you along with some quiet music. This goes along with someone talking made into animations, such as Alan Watt’s videos. This was actually assigned to be watched, which is progress in our school system, however it was also assigned that we fill out a sheet and analyze the video, which totally ruined all the progress. The writing in the top paragraph is actually one answer of what I’m handing in! Even this is a connection to the video. If the right steps are made soon all classes will be on computers, and, even further along, blogs, which is why I like including my homework into something I consider fun.

This video makes me think. If a laptop available in 2049 will surpass the combined technological power of the human race put together, than what are we left to do? As much as anybody I wouldn’t like an “I, Robot” situation however this may be for the better. I choose to see these advances as an opportunity; with all the “menial” (think open heart surgery) jobs out of the way our kind will have all the time we need to express ourselves in ways we can’t program computers to; such as the arts. Think about it.

Tip II coming soon.

Tip I

Published by
gradster1
at August 29, 2007 in lazy, technicalities, bored, arguments, beliefs, August, starting, teenagers, high school, series, school, blogging, random, facts, learning, education, writing and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Alright, I was a bit tired when I wrote my last post, so I failed to reveal that I was to include tips about school life. And thus, tired again, I will do my best to write the first.

Tip I:

Don’t be too prepared.

Having recently spent a day at Walmart (among other places, thank god), I should know that preparing is hard. It can be a bit fun, fighting the crowds, sifting through the piles of stuff, squeezing into tight places to let that obnoxious person past to the checkout lane… But enough is too much. Get in, get out, and try to do it early. Later they may give you back to school prices, but they will wear you and your patience out very quickly.

After the ride home look at your items. Consider how much stuff you have. You’re not going to want more than one binder per class, so if you have too many discard or save them. Notebooks are essential for some classes but not others, find out from your teacher or maybe a friend. Pencils and maybe pens are obviously a must, but erasers are usually not necessary, the pencil ones will suffice. Your teacher may have recommended a calculator, even if this is not a requirement it is a very good idea for math classes. I suggest the TI-84, be it plus, silver, plus silver edition, or something else I have not yet heard of, it works very well for anything up to and even past college and the investment might as well be made now. Other than that accessories such as post-its and pencil sharpeners are surplus and not recommended by me, because they become clutter.

These are my main recommendations for materials for the beginning of the school year. I will take no responsibility if anyone gets in trouble their first day because of these, I am not forcing you to use these guidelines, merely suggesting. It’s rather ironic that as I type I am in my first day of high school, right before lunch, but this underlines my point that I do have experience and so am not a total dimwit when it comes to school preparation. It’s debateable as to whether this applies to blogging, but anyway… Try to enjoy or at least get through without mishap your first day at school.

나는 한국어를 말하지 않는다

Published by
gradster1
at August 9, 2007 in bored, sleep, language, reading, french, arguments, August, morning, summer, education, computers, facts, random, internet, learning, Apple, writing, Spanish, media and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Meaning, of course, “I don’t speak Korean.” How could you not know that? Because you don’t have Babelizer!

The reasons for this post:

  1. Arthus has recently gone through a phase of “Mind Map Madness” in which he tested some mind-mapping programs (think Inspiration).
  2. I have been learning (at HCS, wow!) Spanish for at least 3 years now, and have become very interested in other languages. Of course before you learn any language you want to know how to say one thing: “I do not speak [insert language]” in that language. Recently, I have been trying to learn it in french, and not succeeding.

Thus, I have also narrowed my search down to two candidates, iParrot, and Babelizer. First, some background info.

Babelizer

Babelizer is a small (944 KB), neat (less than 400×900 pixels), and smart (translation in under 2 seconds) application. The simplicity of the program itself is the key, there are only two menu items and only two drop-down menus in the actual application. You choose to and from languages from the menus, type your text in the top field, and watch it come out below. Simple, fast, and efficient. What more could the nerd want?

iParrot, however, is unfortunately, one, not free, not accessible. Even the demo version required the very latest version of iTunes, 8 GB of space on your hard drive, and while this may not be so bad for just an installer, it also requires 60 GB of space on your iPod, and, of course, an iPod.

There are always web apps to do this, but which one has features like Babelizer? Needless to say, especially since I only have about one GB on my iPod at the moment, and tops 4 GB, I chose Babelizer.

Tan si usted desea entender esto, obtiene Babelizer.