UPDATED: Class-Related News of the Day

More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon... Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless... (more at Boston cops make arrest in devices ploy - Yahoo! News)

And from last night's discussion... My bad, there were only 6 imams thrown off the plane: 6 imams removed from Twin Cities flight - Boston.com

Other Links from Today's Topics

Johnson & I both were very pleased with ya'll's great work tonight! In addition, I think particular kudos are in order for the well-moderated discussion, and for those great moments when you took an angle from the article and then fully developed it with your own spin toward your own personal interests and expertise. I look forward to seeing even more of that!!

Here are some additional links that you might also find interesting...


Also in the news today... Millions to go hungry, waterless: climate report - Yahoo! News.

Links for Sarah B. & Jo!

In the News: A Harrowing Story...

"...Ricky's story echoes those of many residents of a children's asylum-seeker hostel in Hillingdon in west London. As well as looking after him, Hillingdon Council cares for around 1,130 children and young people found wandering abandoned in the world's biggest airport, Heathrow...

Many come to Britain alone, some as young as eight or nine, or in small groups of siblings. Often orphans of war, they come from all over the world, having scraped together money to pay agents or people-traffickers, who then abandon them and disappear. They have no papers, no belongings, and no idea what life holds for them now. 'At times they come in at a rate of between 20 and 30 a month," said Teresa Bateman, a team manager at Hillingdon's education and children's services...'"
More at Building a future for Heathrow's lost children - Yahoo! News

Time Limit on Presentations!

So, while a half hour seemed terribly daunting at first, you see that I've never actually had Honors students ever manage to present in less time than that (even when they were only required to do 15 minutes!)

Remember that you can reasonably assume full acquaintance with the article by your audience, so you don't need to eat up your presentation time by reiterating all of it in detail. A quick synopsis will suffice in order to allow you to be able to go on to explain and facilitate discussion on specific meatier issues from your article.

To recap, keep in mind that we're going to have to keep presentation and discussion of each article or set of articles to 30 minutes, particularly this next class during which we'll have 3 presentations scheduled!

Common Writing Problems (from the English Dept.)


I'm a member of a committtee to foster a "Writing across the Curriculum" program, and - as such - just received a list of students' common writing problems. Generally speaking, the broader problems about formulating and communicating an argument don't usually present such great difficulties for the Honors students. Grammar, on the other hand, tends to be more difficult, since a lot of Honors students I know are instinctual writers and were therefore never really trained in the nuts and bolts of English.

So, here's the official English Department list of grammar snafus that tend to plague our students, Honors and otherwise. Needless to say, these are also the problems that we (and if you thought I was bad, you should know that it particularly inflames Johnson!) wants you to be able to banish from your writing forever by the time you finish Capstone! :-)
  • Creating sentences that are grammatically correct and that exhibit variety in structure (using a combination of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences)

  • Avoiding comma splices (a type of run-on sentence in which two independent clauses are jointed with only a comma)

  • Using a college-level vocabulary

  • Avoiding wordiness

  • Primarily using active rather than passive verbs (e.g., He ate the pizza rather than The pizza was eaten by him)

  • Relating pronouns to their antecedents and making verbs agree with their subjects

  • Relying on concrete diction rather than vague, general, and abstract words

  • Handling punctuation correctly, especially the comma

  • Spelling accurately

Stormy Weather!

"A Special Moment in History" talked about "Stormy Weather." Speaking of which...

ExtremeInstability.com discovers YouTube: Clouds darker than any I've ever seen, except in my worst nightmares... (and I've lived in a semi-tropical climate!) As one commenter put it, there's just "something about man meeting nature, and nature kicking his sorry ass."

(Personally, I like the odd moments of the local dog the storm chasers have to rescue at the beginning of the first video, the surreal birds singing and crickets chirping in the second, and the short-lived rainbow with a tornado in one of the last ones...)

NOTE: They're not kidding about the language in the last two videos!

Plus, in the "Gross News of the Day," Huge python makes a meal of 11 guard dogs! (Blech!!)

News: "Affluenza - Rampant consumerism erodes us"

Not that 240 people necessarily constitute a scientific sample, but here's some food for thought in today's news anyway... :-)

Plus... (speaking of consumerism!) at right, a t-shirt for Jackie (and Johnson!)
:-)
Personally, I like the one at left myself!

Then, in environment news, talk about run-off: Sex-change chemicals in river that runs through US capital!

Lastly but not leastly, "WHAT DO WE CARE ABOUT? On a day when 55 people were killed by bombs in Iraq, the most read story on BBC news was news of a duck who survived gunshot wounds and two days in the fridge. The story was also more popular than Hillary Clinton's announcement to run for President in 2008."

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Here's a link to the website for Eats, Shoots and Leaves, subtitled - and I'm sure Jackie will love this - "a zero-tolerance approach to punctuation."

The original (if expurgated!) version of the title story:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

So punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death!

Punctuation, however, hasn't always existed. It developed out of necessity!

Commas, for example, were apparently first used by Greek playwrights to mark "breathing points" for actors.

"Thus leading," Lynne Truss writes, "to the modern explanation of why a cat is not a comma..." Personally, I'm not sure why we'd even need such an explanation, but - for the sake of a learning opportunity - I'm willing to suspend disbelief! :-)

A cat has claws at the end of its paws;
A comma's a pause at the end of a clause!

And I thought history humor was bad! :-)

Links for Today: Meta-Trends, Slime Molds and Emergence

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SLIME MOLDS... BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK!
Interactive "Emergence" Tutorial

Links for In-Class Discussion:

Selected World Wide Web Sites for ANNUAL EDITIONS : Global Issues 06/07

General Sources
U.S. Information Agency (USIA)
USIA’s home page provides definitions, related documentation, and discussions of topics of concern to students of global issues. The site addresses today’s Hot Topics as well as ongoing issues that form the foundation of the field.
World Wide Web Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
Surf this site and its extensive links to learn about specific countries and regions, to research various think tanks and international organizations, and to study such vital topics as international law, development, the international economy, human rights, and peacekeeping.

Global Issues In The Twenty First Century: An Overview
The Henry L. Stimson Center
The Stimson Center, a nonpartisan organization, focuses on issues where policy, technology, and politics intersect. Use this site to find varying assessments of U.S. foreign policy in the post–cold war world and to research other topics.
The Heritage Foundation
This page offers discussion about and links to many sites having to do with foreign policy and foreign affairs, including news and commentary, policy review, events, and a resource bank.
IISDnet
The International Institute for Sustainable Development presents information through links to business, sustainable development, and developing ideas. “Linkages” is its multimedia resource for policymakers. The North-South Institute
Searching this site of the North-South Institute, which works to strengthen international development cooperation and enhance gender and social equity, will help you find information and debates on a variety of global issues.

Population and Food Production
The Hunger Project
Browse through this nonprofit organization’s site, whose goal is the sustainable end to global hunger through leadership at all levels of society. The Hunger Project contends that the persistence of hunger is at the heart of the major security issues threatening our planet.
Penn Library: Resources by Subject
This vast site is rich in links to information about subjects of interest to students of global issues. Its extensive population and demography resources address such concerns as migration, family planning, and health and nutrition in various world regions.
World Health Organization
This home page of the World Health Organization will provide you with links to a wealth of statistical and analytical information about health and the environment in the developing world.
WWW Virtual Library: Demography & Population Studies
A definitive guide to demography and population studies can be found at this site. It contains a multitude of important links to information about global poverty and hunger.

The Global Environment and Natural Resources Utilization
National Geographic Society
This site provides links to material related to the atmosphere, the oceans, and other environmental topics.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Through this home page of NOAA, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, you can find information about coastal issues, fisheries, climate, and more. The site provides many links to research materials and to other Web resources.
SocioSite: Sociological Subject Areas
This huge site provides many references of interest to those interested in global issues, such as links to information on ecology and the impact of consumerism.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Consult this home page of UNEP for links to critical topics of concern to students of global issues, including desertification, migratory species, and the impact of trade on the environment.

Political Economy
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA)
BCSIA is the hub of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s research, teaching, and training in international affairs related to security, environment, and technology.
U.S. Agency for International Development
Broad and overlapping issues such as democracy, population and health, economic growth, and development are covered on this Web site. It provides specific information about different regions and countries.
The World Bank Group
News, press releases, summaries of new projects, speeches, publications, and coverage of numerous topics regarding development, countries, and regions are provided at this World Bank site. It also contains links to other important global financial organizations.

Conflict
DefenseLINK
Learn about security news and research-related publications at this U.S. Department of Defense site. Links to related sites of interest are provided. The information systems BosniaLINK and GulfLINK can also be found here. Use the search function to investigate such issues as land mines.
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
FAS, a nonprofit policy organization, maintains this site to provide coverage of and links to such topics as global security, peace, and governance in the post–cold war world. It notes a variety of resources of value to students of global issues.
ISN International Relations and Security Network
This site, maintained by the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research, is a clearinghouse for information on international relations and security policy. Topics are listed by category (Traditional Dimensions of Security, New Dimensions of Security, and Related Fields) and by major world region.
The NATO Integrated Data Service (NIDS)
NIDS was created to bring information on security-related matters to within easy reach of the widest possible audience. Check out this Web site to review North Atlantic Treaty Organization documentation of all kinds, to read NATO Review, and to explore key issues in the field of European security and transatlantic cooperation.

Cooperation
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
An important goal of this organization is to stimulate discussion and learning among both experts and the public at large on a wide range of international issues. The site provides links to Foreign Policy, to the Moscow Center, to descriptions of various programs, and much more.
Commission on Global Governance
This site provides access to The Report of the Commission on Global Governance, produced by an international group of leaders who want to find ways in which the global community can better manage its affairs.
OECD/FDI Statistics
Explore world trade and investment trends and statistics on this site from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It provides links to many related topics and addresses the issues on a country-by-country basis.
U.S. Institute of Peace
USIP, which was created by the U.S. Congress to promote peaceful resolution of international conflicts, seeks to educate people and to disseminate information on how to achieve peace. Click on Highlights, Publications, Events, Research Areas, and Library and Links.

Values and Visions
Human Rights Web
The history of the human rights movement, text on seminal figures, landmark legal and political documents, and ideas on how individuals can get involved in helping to protect human rights around the world can be found in this valuable site.
InterAction
InterAction encourages grassroots action and engages government policymakers on advocacy issues. The organization’s Advocacy Committee provides this site to inform people on its initiatives to expand international humanitarian relief, refugee, and development-assistance programs.