Posted in Language, Natural Sciences on Jun 13th, 2009 No Comments »
The Long Debate of Adding Ununbium to the Periodic Table: I find this to be a very interesting subject – but am still pondering to understand how exactly these recent elements are “created” (the idea that some chemical elements are discovered, and other are created…. yes, that’s just fascinating to me).
It also makes me [...]
Posted in Language, Natural Sciences on May 26th, 2009 3 Comments »
This is an intriguing article – a bit morbid, but worth reading (particularly for those of you interested in medicine):
Autopsies of War Dead
Language and Gender Stereotypes: Two Slate writers discuss Obama’s use of a “gendered code word” in his search for a Supreme Court nominee (Note: he just nominated Sonia Sotomayor). Such words, they argue, [...]
Posted in Ethics, Human Sciences, Language on Apr 17th, 2009 No Comments »
On the annual “Day of Silence” (of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), NYT columnist Judith Warner provides an article, Dude, You’ve Got Problems, on bullying and name-calling involving words such as “gay”, “fag” or “queer”. It’s an interesting read, as is the profusion of comments that follow – Warner clearly touched on a contentious [...]
Posted in Language on Apr 7th, 2009 2 Comments »
Language as It Is Changing: An example of how language evolves over time, reflecting changes within society and culture. It is also quite striking that in this case a “date” (a year, which is approximate, but still) can be identified for the change in some dictionaries.
One related aspect you might think about is that some [...]
Posted in Human Sciences, Language, Natural Sciences, Sense Perception on Mar 12th, 2009 3 Comments »
We will be discussing the article “The Egg and the Sperm” tomorrow, but here are a few pre-class reflection questions:
1) What are the stereotypical male/female traits? Identify and write them down.
2) Do the textbooks examined in the study reflect any of these stereotypical traits?
3) Does your biology textbook (whether from IB Biology or from lower [...]
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Mar 9th, 2009 No Comments »
Today, Obama lifted the ban on stem cell research – a highly contentious issue:
The Stem Cell War
There is also The IVF Battlefield.
Still involving children (though not in their embryonic form) and somewhat less controversial, there is also the heated discussion on whether forward phasing strollers might impede a child’s language learning. Yes, I know, that’s [...]
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Mar 4th, 2009 No Comments »
Restricting IVF
Abortion? Don’t Mention It
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Feb 28th, 2009 2 Comments »
Reading recommendations:
Slate asks Who should pay for in vitro fertilization?, a question that has arisen as part of the recent octuplets controversy. Also related to some of the presentation topics (e.g. “Synthetic Biology”) we have seen in class is another Slate article, which considers the the bad uses of good technology.
I would also like to recommend [...]
Posted in Language on Feb 3rd, 2009 No Comments »
In F-period one (unnamed (-: ) male member stated that women only use feminism when it is to their advantage, insisting “ladies first” as we were discussing the “Man-Made Language” article. This reminded me of an issue that was raised in the aftermath of the United Airlines plane crash in the Hudson River the previous [...]
Posted in Language, Politics on Jan 31st, 2009 No Comments »
We briefly discussed the phrase “Our nation is at war” from Obama’s inaugural speech, which seemed to proceed to “against terror”, but actually ended in “against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred”.
The article below discusses the catchphrase “war against terror”/”war on terror” – when it arose, what it came to mean and how the [...]
Posted in Language, Politics on Jan 26th, 2009 No Comments »
Some of you are struggling to come up with presentation topics, yet issues worthy of ToK happen every day. One recent example is Barack Obama’s swearing-in last week, which probably raised multiple issues we could talk about. However, since we are currently studying language, I thought we should focus on linguistic KI’s.
We could commence with [...]
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Posted in Language, Politics on Jan 26th, 2009 No Comments »
Single Words, Different Perspectives: The “War of Language”. Check out the audio & photos on the side as well – the war’s “many angles”.
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…
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 [...]
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 [...]
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!
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 [...]
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Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences, Reason on Nov 12th, 2008 2 Comments »
When discussing inductive reasoning in the natural sciences in F-period today, I mentioned an experiment I had read about the other day on certain types of sea sponges that conduct light to their interior. Interestingly, the article even mentions that the experiment was based on previous observations.
I also happened to stumble across another article with [...]
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences, Religion on Nov 10th, 2008 No Comments »
Intriguing, brain cell stimulating articles of the day:
“When the Deity Knows You’re Dead”: The question raised is, how do different religions define death? How do we know when someone is dead? (Opposite the usual “When does life begin question” – though it does relate back to the entry I posted on Organ Harvesting, except that [...]
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Language on Oct 30th, 2008 No Comments »
BBC article: “Me and My Swastika”
“Me and My Swastika” – audio report (29 min)
Swastika on Wikipedia- The section on what the symbol signifies in different religions is particularly interesting.
“The Origin of the Swastika”
Posted in Language on Oct 15th, 2008 2 Comments »
Some you may be familiar with advice columns in newspapers. One of the most famous ones and published in many newspapers worldwide, as well as on the web is the column “Dear Abby”.
I thought today’s column was of interest for us in ToK, as it concerns LANGUAGE and cultural specific usages of it.
External Link
Copy of [...]
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Oct 6th, 2008 1 Comment »
Slate has published another interesting article – one that perhaps is a good example of what a ToK journal could be like. Be warned – this article is not for the faint-hearted.
Undead Babies: The Retreating Boundaries of Organ Harvesting
Posted in Ethics, Language, Media on Oct 5th, 2008 No Comments »
Well, well, an interesting article on MSN today, entitled
“Is there truth in advertising?” All too intriguingly the article is itself an ad (paid for by DOVE as part of their Beauty campaign). What do you think about this? What do you think about the article and what the writer Nancy Redd says in [...]
