August Sander
Almost as remarkable as the photos themselves is the fact that this is the first ever solo exhibit by August Sander in the United States (the revered German photographer died in 1964). And for this, my fellow Minnesotans, we must thank Mr. Weinstein--because, at least for a few weeks, you don't have to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see a Sander print. You merely need to make your way to Weinstein Gallery on West 46th Street (there is always parking right in front) and push open the door. Most likely, you'll be alone in the space and surrounded by the paper-people who Sander, so many years ago, labored to see "as they are and not as they should or could be." You've got until April 12th friends. It's always free. Don't miss this one.
Citipages
We didn't, and we were alone. That makes it even more affecting. The most incredible thing was Sander's Christmas card from 1939, the centennial of photography.
March 13, 2008 5:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
March 12, 2008 1:35 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
All Stripped Down
I was upset when the institution where I got my M.A. stripped the disciplinary label Rhetoric from its degree—while they still wear their allegance in one form (Department of Rhetoric and Writing), the degree is listed as Professional and Technical Writing. History repeats, with the latest change here purging the name even from the department label: the University of Minnesota no longer has a program in Rhetoric, (they have reserved the possibility of incorporating it as an interdisciplinary program). I selected this program because it was one of the oldest (almost a hundred years old) Rhetoric programs in the country. Things change, I guess. An article in the Washington Post declares it to be the return to “an old standard to ensure its success: teaching students to write better.”
Blink. Seems to me that this is what we’ve been trying to do all along. The "old standard" is embedded in our department's 19th century roots.
The push to improve writing is taking hold at many colleges and universities amid a national debate about what higher education in 21st century should look like in the face of government projections that nearly two-thirds of all high-growth, high-wage jobs created in the next decade will require a college degree -- a degree only one-third of adults have.
. . . Even at VCU [Virginia Commonwealth University], where institutional change is easier to accomplish because its traditions are not as enshrined, [Vice Provost Joseph] Marolla said he met resistance to designing curriculum around skill areas instead of the traditional content areas. It took him two years to convince his colleagues that the curriculum change should revolve around six skill areas -- communication, critical thinking, information fluency, collaborative work, ethical and civic responsibility, and quantitative literacy.
"Academics say, 'No, no, no, I don't work with skills. Competencies, maybe, but not skills. It's not what I do,' " he said.
But whatever it is called, writing is in demand. "The number one thing everyone says is that people have to be able to write," he said.
March 11, 2008 7:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Gambusia
Researchers from the University of Padova in Italy have found that fish have rudimentary counting abilities and can count up to four.
Christian Agrillo, Marco Dadda, Giovanna Serena and Angelo Bisazza studied the ability of Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) to discriminate numbers by giving lone female mosquitofishes the choice of joining shoals of between two to eight other individuals in an experimental tank setup.
The authors found that lone fishes more often preferred joining larger shoals that had one more fish.
Test individuals consistently preferred joining shoals of four over shoals of three, shoals of three over shoals of two, and shoals of two over one fish.
However, experiments with larger numbers (5 vs. 4, 6 vs. 5, 7 vs. 6 and 8 vs. 7) showed that the fishes failed to discriminate quantities larger than four.
This demonstrated that the fish had the ability to count up to four and possessed a rudimentary mathematical ability to visually count items if the number is small.
Practical Fishkeeping
Also see: "Female mosquitofish prefer well-endowed males."
Disclosure: I find this fascinating, perhaps because I raised and conducted experiments involving the consumptive habits of Gambusia (mosquitofish) when I was in the sixth grade. To my parents displeasure, these experiments also involved raising mosquitoes.
March 10, 2008 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
You can't seem to get rid of it
Nice to find the complete set of "visual thinking" clips. I've been using the later version of this (visual thinking #2) in class for the last couple of semesters. I find it useful, especially when cautioning people not to use Microsoft wizards as a shortcut in document design. Bad things happen.
