Flavian Monroe Diary

I’m stepping up to the plate and promising an actual carpool blog tomorrow. We haven’t been carpooling much lately, mostly due to Lisa’s recent boondoggle to the Mexican Riviera and Zack’s life-threatening surgery (maybe a slight exaggeration, maybe not…wisdom tooth extraction is one of the worst experiences I can remember. I would rather drive 10 consecutive Thurs night commutes in one sitting than go through that again, and you know how much I despise the Thurs commute. Not only is the actual procedure horrific, but I think I’m still dealing with the aftermath a year later.)

In the meantime, I’ll whet your palate with this. I saw the new Keanu Reeves movie Constantine this weekend. I won’t ruin it for those of you that are eagerly anticipating watching this movie (there has to be at least one person out there), but I will give you some thoughts. Keanu Reeves has discovered his niche as this greater-than-life religious being that can willingly transport himself between worlds and has superhuman powers. In fact, this is so his niche that from now on when someone finds their niche, we should say they found their Keanu. The two words are synonymous from now on…niche = Keanu. This is the only kind of movie he should ever do again. In general, I think Keanu is a pretty bad actor. His performance in Speed (capped off by the Gigantor line - I know you know it - “Calm down Gigantor”) was some of the worst acting I can remember seeing. I won’t go as far as to say he added anything to this movie, but at least he didn’t ruin it (like he nearly did with Speed). In total, the movie was entertaining and is worth checking out, especially since there’s not much else out right now. Effects were pretty cool. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

While looking up info on “The Singing Bee” host Joey Fatone, I noticed that some Wikipedia jokester has altered the spelling of his name from “Fatone” to “Fat One.” That’s not just an insult and an old joke: it’s also reference to late-night TV. If you watch the Cartoon Network’s late-night “Adult Swim” block, you might have caught Fatone’s guest appearance on a “Robot Chicken” sketch. He played himself as a martial-arts student avenging the deaths of his bandmates and the continual mispronunciation of his name. The title? “Enter The Fat One.”

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

NPR has a radio show about a new book on ‘cognitive dissonance’, the process that motivates us to resolve conflicts between our thoughts and actions.

Mixing Memory has a wonderfully insightful look at a recent study on mirror neurons, animacy, and gesture.

This is Your Brain on Love. The LA Times has an article on the neuroscience of attraction and companionship.

Scientific American has an article on how the brain parses music and pays attention.

An unusual skull boosts the human-neandertal interbreeding theory, reports National Geographic.

How optimistic should you feel about having your first baby? Cognitive Daily looks at how well expectant mothers are able to predict post-birth satisfaction.

BBC Radio 4 sociology programme Thinking Allowed investigates friendship networks in Amazon peoples and the social psychology of shame and stigma.

‘Brain boosting’ educational videos for babies and young children may actually slow vocabulary growth, reports Science.

Car Zimmer writes about cooperation as a principle of evolution in the New York Times.

The Economist profiles evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller

Dr Petra Boynton looks at a recent study that report self-professed reasons people gave for having sex.

Science tattoos! Carl Zimmer is collecting pictures scientists with work-related ink, including this image of a development psychologist auditory neurophysiologist with the Necker Cube on her arm.

In light of recent disturbance in the mortgage market, Frontal Cortex has an excellent analysis on the psychology of subprime mortgages.

People really don’t give Tcl enough credit.

John Terry has warned the players that have missed the last two England games that there are “no guarantees” they will regain their places in the side when the squad reunites for next month’s Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham and Owen Hargreaves were expected to start in the matches had they not been recovering from injury. However, the performances offered by Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey and Shaun Wright-Phillips in their absence has given the squad a boost, not to mention the morale of England fans. We’ve pondered on the debate of who should be the squad. Does Steve McClaren need to have a think about sticking with recent changes?
John Terry stated; “Lots of players have put down markers - the likes of Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. There are people who have come into the side and are really wanting to fight for their place. But there are no guarantees for any player that he will start in the next match. We have done very well in these games and there are some key players coming back, so there will be some big decisions for the England manager to make. It applies to me as well.”

The Carnival Cruise Valor is a ship that will be holding the first annual “Improv at Sea”. This will be an event that has never been held on a Carnival Cruise ship before. The Carnival Cruise event will take place from November 18-25, 2007. They will have comedy workshops, amateur and professional routines performed through out the sea voyage. You will not be able to find a vacation like this with Princess Cruises or a Disney Cruise. This Carnival cruise is for everyone that loves comedy and for people who would like to learn techniques used by many professionals. The price is around 670 for the 7 night voyage and will be worth every penny.

The previews in the local paper panned Shrek the Third for being simple, shallow, so like the Shrek we’ve seen before. Some people are so serious.

Shrek–the computer-generated ogre who makes us laugh for a little while with the help of a donkey and a cat–is not that brainchild of a Shakespeare. That’s why we like Shrek, the cat, and the donkey–whatever their names are. To expect anything loftier is crazy. It is a cartoon, after all. So it’s a bonus when we find the other messages: that the strength we find inside ourselves can help us through our challenges, that our value as sentient beings is not contingent on our beauty.

Same morals, same Shrek as before. Same basic good-versus-blown-dry-evil plot as before. If the kids who see this thing walk away with some sense that looks and value are not the same thing and they’re not even contingent on each other, that’s good. The message is worth repeating to the adolescent audiences who will fill theatres to see it. For many, it may be a new idea.

Women of folk-tale fame almost save the day for Shrek in No. 3. Actually, they clear the way for the nerd to have his moment of glory. So mom-like of them. And there are some very funny moments, particularly when the classic Disney version of Snow White gives way to Heart’s “Barracuda.”

I asked my daughter and my nephews (ages 5 through 8 1/2) if they had a favorite moment in this movie. They liked the sequence when Shrek and Artie, the king-to-be-despite-himself, are about to have a heart-to-heart conversation but Marlin the Wizard flicks on the old Elton John-Dionne Warwick single “That’s What Friends are for.” Merlin robs the Hallmark moment of its sinificance with yet another cliche. These kids get it: a silly cartoon, a computer-animation thing, is about laughter even as it suggests a meaningful level of feeling we don’t need to go anywhere near.

Shrek the Third–should we call it Tray or Tre?–is about laughing at the meanies of the world that we might come home to the ones who love us and take our rightful place in the world–pop music, fairy tales, bathroom humor and all–confident of our welcome.

Shrek the Third is not Shakespeare; it does not pretend to be. It’s just plain fun.

Guest: kenn
Post subject: Credit Cards with Travel Rewards
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:55 am

Some of my cards claim explicitly to offer so many miles per dollar for various airlines, but in fact they award only travel/tickets, not mileage at all. Excluding the high-fee cards associated with a single airline, are there any cards that offer actual transfer of mileage, say in 1000 mile increments, into numerous major airlines (hotel accounts, too)? I am more interested in keeping inactive FF accounts active. I am looking for a card that works more like a car rental company’s award system: once a year I could just transfer 1000 points from the accumulated card ‘reward’ balance into equivalent mileage in each of several FF accounts which I could specify at the time.

Such transfers within programs of the hospitality and travel industries appear to be common (albeit with diminishingly attractive conversion rates), but I do not find similar bank programs. Direct purchase of mileage points from airlines tends to be prohibitive. At present I have to remember which card is linked to what airline for dining mileage promotions, when to buy annual FTD flowers, etc. (I bought a lifetime supply of garbage bags last day of the USAirways year….)

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Guest: RacieRacer
Credit Expert (100+ Posts)
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:43 pm

kenn wrote:
Some of my cards claim explicitly to offer so many miles per dollar for various airlines, but in fact they award only travel/tickets, not mileage at all. Excluding the kigh-fee cards associated with a single airline, are there any cards that offer actual transfer of mileage, say in 1000 mile increments, into numerous major airlines (hotel accounts, too)? I am more interested in keeping inactive FF accounts active. I am looking for a card that works more like a car rental company’s award system: once a year I could just transfer 1000 points from the accumulated card ‘reward’ balance into equivalent mileage in each of several FF accounts which I could specify at the time.

Such transfers within programs of the hospitality and travel industries appear to be common (albeit with diminishingly attractive conversion rates), but I do not find similar bank programs. Direct purchase of mileage points from airlines tends to be prohibitive. At present I have to remember which card is linked to what airline for dining mileage promotions, when to buy annual FTD flowers, etc. (I bought a lifetime supouy of garbage bags last day of the USAirways year….)

Well I have Citi AA card and it gives me FF miles and I have US Air from Juniper/Barclays and it gives me FF miles. Amex gives Delta Sky miles. There are several others.

What card are you thinking of that does not give actual FF miles?
Something like the Crap1 one big hassle card?

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Guest: angelo21
Credit Expert (100+ Posts)
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:12 pm

I think you need to check your FF programs.

With Delta, I used to get double mileage for purchasing my ticket with an Amex card (any one). This was indifferent of what I could get from my card.

See if your airline has a similar promo.

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Posted by Ping Chen and Joel Onofrio, Software Engineers

If you’ve ever seen a great picture and wondered where it was, wished you could visit that exact spot yourself, or found yourself itching to share a great photo with somebody — but you were away from a computer, we’ve got two new features on Picasa Web Albums to help you out. First, we’re excited to let you know about ‘Map My Photos’ — it lets you show exactly where you took your favorite snapshots. When you share an album with friends, they can see your best photos arrayed on a map (or even Google Earth). It’s the perfect way to showcase a memorable road trip or a globe-trotting vacation.

Here’s how to get started: when you create a new album, just fill in the optional ‘Place Taken’ field. You can even drag and drop individual photos directly onto a map, and use built-in Google Maps technology to pinpoint exactly where each was shot. For a quick peek at what the results look like, check out our test gallery.

But wait! There’s more. We’re also launching the first version of Picasa Web Albums built specifically for mobile devices. You already have a couple of pictures stuffed in your wallet, and maybe even a few wallpapers stored on your phone. But what about all those snapshots you can’t carry around? With Picasa Web Albums for mobile devices, your favorite pictures are always with you. So next time you’re at a loss for words when describing just how awesome, cute, or beautiful something really was, just grab your phone for visual backup.

Of course, the mobile version of Picasa Web Albums lets you keep track of photo updates from friends and family, too. Just click ‘My Favorites’ from the main screen to see the latest photo albums that your contacts have posted to Picasa Web Albums — you can even post a quick comment on their photos, using your phone. Thumbnails and photos are automatically re-sized for your device’s screen, so pictures look good and download fast. All you need to get started is a phone with a web browser and a data plan; learn more here.

As you enjoy your summer travels, remember to take plenty of snaps, and share the most beautiful places in the world (and don’t forget to use your phone to show off pics from back home!).

Lave, Jean and Etienne Wenger. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Overview:

This manuscript introduces the concept of situated learning. It really is a book about a concept and a framework for analyzing learning with little analysis itself.

In Chapter 1, they traverse the history of their thinking while at IRL, discussing how they went from apprenticeship to situated learning by really thinking through what legitimate peripheral participation is about. The bulk of this chapter consists of word games, focusing on why certain words were chosen and how they cannot be decoupled from one another.

At the core, Lave & Wenger are interested in how newcomers become part of a community of practice through engagement with the practices themselves. Moving away from theories of “receiving” knowledge, they focus on how people’s activities with the world allow them access to knowledge that is fundamentally different than observing or being spoon-fed. In other words, learning is a whole-body activity. They see their approach as Marxist in nature, where the goal is to “ascend (from both the particular and the abstract) to the concrete” (38).

In learning, one must be engaged in practice but also in the social world. Learning is very much about internalizing the surrounding culture and becoming an active participant in the practice of learning.

[There is reference to a Russian named Vygotsky and his work on “zone” which appears to be assumed knowledge that i don’t have.]

Questions:

What is the role of activity theory in situated learning?
What is the significance of situated learning in the educational sphere?