Sam's Blog

HW check in. Brainstorming session - what are ways the theme of transformation can show up in a story? Some comics with philosophical themes. Fun discussion. comic comic comic comic Some other ideas that might be fun to include in stories: Physicalists and idealist theories of mind Determinist and libertarian ideas of free will What is the self? What is versus what is known Before dismissal, check in in and make sure everyone has some ideas for their story. 

Theme: Transformation First, I returned work. Checked in with people who have missing assignments. I should probably grade late ones, but haven’t. Second, share any good ads. Collect homework; if you don’t have it go to Liz. To wrap up with morals, mention that some of them, from the homework, seem amoral. To make it clear that morals are about right and wrong, ask questions like: Do animals have rights? Do all humans have rights? Is euthanasia acceptable? Is lying ever acceptable? If someone else can obviously make more out of their life than I, is it moral to sacrifice myself for them if needed? Then we introduced the idea of transformation with these stories: Samsa and Seuss from This American Life: (14 min) Goo and You - Radiolab - What happens to butterflies? (17 min) Homework: Write a short, short story involving transformation. Ideally, it would have a theme, or moral. Actually, ideally it would be really good and fu

Today we talked about fallacies in advertising. You used fallacies to come up with ads for some pretty terrible products. Your homework is to look at 3 ads and fill in THIS SHEET . Here is an example: Advertisement for ______ Guinness _________________ Summary of ad: Guys in wheelchairs playing basketball. It looks hard. I felt bad for them. After the game, all but one get out of wheelchairs, then they go to a pub. We realize the others were in wheelchairs just to be good friends. The narrator says that the choices you make determine the kind of person you are. Logical Fallacies in Ad: Appeal to emotion - that these guys are being good friends doesn't make Guinness a desirable product. Did the fallacies help sell the product, or did they make the ad worse? Honestly, yes - I am a sucker for appeal to emotion. It made me associate the product with a good feeling. (End of example) Also, we listened to a follow-up episode of Radiolab:

Post-algebra... You asked about the different variable types in Ruby. Here is an article on that: http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/Ruby_Variable_Scope

Morality. I collected the logical fallacies homework. We looked at this comic strip to introduce the idea of morality. (If you look through his other comics, you might find that some have adult language. So, don't look through the comics unless you are an adult or have the approval of your legal guardian). We listened to a segment of an episode of Radiolab (one of the best things ever!!) about morality. ( Here is the video of the gorilla saving the boy that was mentioned in the Radiolab episode.)Then I explained the homework: You are faced with many moral dilemmas each day. Choose two that you have faced recently and write about them: explain the context, what you felt your options were, and what you chose to do. Now that you are looking back on it and thinking more logically and less emotionally, do you see any other way you could have acted? What would have been the “morally correct” thing to do? THIS ASSIGNMENT SHOULD BE TYPED AND EITHER EMAILED TO ME OR PRI