Can Israel Win the War in Gaza?
Posted in Politics, history on Dec 31st, 2008 No Comments »
The final line of this article is a tell-all: history is written by the winners (yes, quoting Mrs. Ayub).
Archive for December, 2008
Religion and Self-Control
Posted in Emotion, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Religion on Dec 30th, 2008 1 Comment »
I am on a roll… posting, just in case you are planning to stay up late tomorrow night and get bored at some point.
Anyhow: An NYT article on how religious belief and piety promote self-control.
Saving Face: Face Transplants for the “Socially Crippled”
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Natural Sciences on Dec 30th, 2008 No Comments »
I don´t think I yet posted this article, which has been up on Slate for some ten days.
And since you probably weren´t paying much attention to such issues in your pre-ToK time, here are some more articles:
First Face Transplant Carried Out in France (November 2005) – also check the links to articles on the top [...]
The Universal Language: Facial Expressions
Posted in Emotion on Dec 30th, 2008 2 Comments »
A BBC article echoes our reading of “The Universal Language”, detailing recent research on the innateness of facial expressions connected to particular emotions: “Smiles and scowls ´in our genes´”.
The Milgram Experiment in 2008
Posted in Human Sciences on Dec 29th, 2008 2 Comments »
I don´t know if I ever mentioned the Milgram experiment in class (if I did, I did not use the name), which was conducted in the aftermath of World War II to investigate how so many ordinary Germans participated in cruelties committed by Hitler´s regime. The 1963 experiment was conducted in the US, and results [...]
Blindsight: Blind, Yet Seeing
Posted in Emotion, Science, Sense Perception on Dec 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Fascinating scientific research on blindsight, “the native ability to sense things using the brain’s primitive, subcortical — and entirely subconscious — visual system” – read about it here.
How to Measure…That Is the Question
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 26th, 2008 No Comments »
An article on the BBC webpage states that, “[f]or many people, changing one way you measure things seems to be much more than a simple practical step. This is because at the heart of every system of measurement lies a whole way of seeing the world.”
You can read the whole article here.
The Frozen Ones: The Morally Deserted World of Spare Embryos
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences, Technology on Dec 16th, 2008 2 Comments »
I found this article rather worth reading today, as it raised some very challenging questions – that, according to the writer – we haven’t even yet started thinking about.
Shoes, Feet and Dogs
Posted in Emotion, Religion on Dec 16th, 2008 2 Comments »
If you have been reading the news, you might be aware of the recent ’shoe-throwing incident’. I don’t want to go into the politics of that, but we can learn something about cultural practices and beliefs from it. Slate nicely does us the favour of listing the significance of shoes and feet across a range [...]
A Crime… or Just Politics?
Posted in Ethics, Language, Politics on Dec 14th, 2008 No Comments »
I found it, finally…
The question is “Is it a crime or just politics?”. Of course, the issue is more than just a matter of language (in fact, that might be the more indirect question here). The “Where is the line drawn” is a of course a perfectly ToKish concern…
Language… Matters (Double Meaning… Anyone Decode It?)
Posted in Language on Dec 14th, 2008 No Comments »
I am on the lookout for articles on language, since that is what we are currently studying (yes, you are on holiday, but I’m still going to update the blog! Your brain shouldn’t stop thinking intelligently just because you aren’t in school).
Here’s one opinion article from the NY Times, discussing a single word and its [...]
Primal, Acute and Easily Duped: Our Sense of Touch
Posted in Natural Sciences, Sense Perception on Dec 9th, 2008 No Comments »
This article on the sense of touch (which we largely neglected in our discussion) is fascinating and rather insightful.
Happy Birthday, Mouse!
Posted in Emotion, Language, Technology on Dec 9th, 2008 No Comments »
The computer mouse is celebrating its fortieth birthday. Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? The BBC also published another article, detailing the technological advances ever since the mouse was invented – it’s gone from wood mouse to touch pad. At this point in time computer developers are working with so-called “gestural computer mechanisms like touch [...]
And Monkeys Go on Strike
Posted in Emotion, Natural Sciences on Dec 8th, 2008 1 Comment »
An interesting article reporting on scientific research on animals and emotion:
“Studies Show Dogs Have a Sense of Fairness”
I had to chuckle when reading about the monkeys going on strike. (-:
Newsweek Cover Article
Posted in Religion on Dec 8th, 2008 No Comments »
As reported elsewhere, this week’s cover article in Newsweek is on gay marriage. This issue is currently a hot topic in the US, due to the passing of Proposition 8 on November 4th. The link above challenges Newsweek’s main argument, which you can read about here. I haven’t yet read the Newsweek article, nor read any [...]
Music & Language
Posted in Language on Dec 4th, 2008 No Comments »
I haven’t forgotten about the “solutions” to our recent class exercise. I just haven’t yet quite got to it. I promise, I WILL publish that post within the next two days!
ToKish…
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Natural Sciences, Psychology on Dec 4th, 2008 No Comments »
I thought I should find you some more articles that might inspire one or the other journal entry and hopped over to Slate, which is always a good place to find something ToKish. A new article, entitled
Obama in Your Heart, yet again discusses emotion. A few days ago, I also came across a discussion on [...]
Peace (Poem by Stanley Moss)
Posted in Language on Dec 3rd, 2008 10 Comments »
Here is the poem we discussed in one of the classes today – just in case you wanted to ponder it a bit more.
PEACE
by Stanley Moss
The trade of war is over, there are no more battles,
but simple murder is still in.
The No God, Time, creeps his way,
universe after universe, like a great snapping turtle
opening its [...]
Protected: IB Syllabus Section on Language
Posted in Language on Dec 2nd, 2008 Enter your password to view comments
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
