Archive for the 'beliefs' 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.

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.

A Perfect Way To Start My Day

Published by
gradster1
at August 6, 2007 in beliefs, summer, morning, starting, betaphor, August, lazy, sleep, blogging, random, facts, writing, computers and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I know that I have not been very vigilant in keeping up the number of posts on Betaphor. As a solution, however short they may be, I have decided that as soon as I get up in the morning, I will try to write. This hopefully will help.

8 Random Facts

Published by
gradster1
at June 30, 2007 in lazy, bored, eating, reading, arguments, beliefs, hobbits, July, Lord of the Rings, iPod, education, facts, blogging, random, internet, learning, Apple, computers, memes, writing and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Thanks for tagging me with a new meme, Arthus! I’ll gladly respond. Firstly, the rules, which will explain to you why I’m even listing them.

  • Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
  • Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
  • Players should tag eight other people and notify them that they have been tagged.

Now for the actual facts:

  1. I have four iPods. Technically, one of them belongs to my mother and isn’t really an iPod, and one belongs to my dad’s company and it’s really old, but I myself own a blue 4G mini and a silver 2G nano. In other words, I don’t really have a useful iPod. :D
  2. I like being sick. This is, some would say, an unusual trait, but not so if you look at it. Going to school and learning while almost falling asleep because you are so bored versus staying home, eating popsicles and other sweet, aqueous solutions, watching many hours of TV and countless movies, and almost falling asleep because you are so tired. Which one do you think wins? :D This comes with a long list of unusual physical traits, one other related one being that I love being tired. You know how you read in fiction many times that a character is too tired to go on? I have never experienced this until I was sick recently, and tried to get off the couch and go upstairs. I couldn’t do it because I was so tired, my muscles were literally not in my control. It was pretty cool to me (and you thought you were weird).
  3. I have never read the LOTR series (thought I’ve seen the movies), 1984, Big Wide World (or whatever you said it was, Arthus), Fahrenheit 451, and many other books that Arthus considers good literature, and I consider crap, mainly because he says they’re classics. Correct me if I’m wrong, but books that are supposedly oldies-but-goodies and are a staple of high school education are pretty boring, especially to people at my age. I’ll try them anyway, though.
  4. Just like Arthus, “I live in a small, rural town nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains. My previous school has about 400 students and the one I will be attending has about 1,400 students.” Sorry, had to include that.
  5. My computer usage is timed; I’m not even supposed to be writing this. Though I suppose writing is a bit different than gaming, I only get and hour and a half a day. However, as we all know the practice of parental figures limiting something only succeeds in raising an addict, therefor I savor all the time I can get and some that I can’t (or at least am not supposed to). I have gotten in trouble at school many a time for gaming and will many a time in the future, and am proud of it. :D
  6. I am currently running a mass produced eMac with a (*pauses to click “About This Mac”*) 800 MHz PPC processor and 1 GB of ram. Yes, yes, pity me. Do it now! However, I’m not as rich as Arthus, so I plan to get a nice new Macbook at the end of high school.
  7. I carry an ongoing belief that one IS prime. I will not believe otherwise (my math grades in certain units are very fine examples of this) until someone gives me one good reason why. If you want to try your hand keyboard at it, go ahead.
  8. I am stubborn to a fault. I nearly killed myself one fine summer morning in preschool when I insisted on eating a berry (which was conveniently placed in the playground of a preschool… someone is pretty smart over there) which I thought was a blueberry and my mother later found out was poisonous. I got a good reprimanding and a bad stomachache, even after she made me spit it out.

I don’t know any bloggers, so I’ll have to talk to Arthus about reading some good blogs and getting acquainted. Instead, why don’t you comment if you read this? Then I’ll know who you are, and will gladly tag you.