BBC Horizon/PBS Nova THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT, Richard Feynman Interview (1981) Fifty minutes of PURE Feynman! This is the original Horizon Nova interview – essential for any Feynman fan… and for everyone else too! “I’m an explorer, OK I like to find out!” Richard Feynman, physicist and adventurer extraordinary… THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT was filmed in 1981 and will delight and inspire anyone who would like to share something of the joys of scientific discovery. Feynman is a master storyteller, and his tales — about childhood, Los Alamos, or how he won a Nobel Prize — are a vivid and entertaining insight into the mind of a great scientist at work and play. “The 1981 Feynman Horizon is the best science program I have ever seen. This is not just my opinion – it is also the opinion of many of the best scientists that I know who have seen the program… It should be mandatory viewing for all students whether they be science or arts students.” – Professor Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Possible clarity is provided by building off the ideas of Holmes (2000) who theorized that there is an inverse relationship between learning for performance and learning for identity-building. Learning for performance is typical in settings like schooling and the workplace, but it also occurs in a number of  freechoice learning contexts such as sports and the arts, as well in traditional cultural practices such as  weaving and hunting. However, learning can also be motivated for purely intrinsic reasons that have  little to do with performance and everything to do with the process of identity-related self-satisfaction.  According to Kelly (1983) leisure time free-choice learning, like other activities that have a large measure of choice and control, are particularly amenable to the self-affirmation process since they are self-defined, intrinsically motivated activities. The perception of choice and control appears to be fundamental to a heightened sense of self-actualization (Bem, 1972; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Samdahl & Kleiber, 1989; Steele, 1988; Williams, 2002), which in turn sustains the integrity of personal identity. However, leisure situations are also amenable to learning for performance. Haggard and Williams (1992) stated, ‘‘Through leisure activities we are able to construct situations that provide us with the information that we are who we believe ourselves to be, and provide others with information that will allow them to understand us more accurately (p. 1).’’

-Journal of Research in Science Teaching article.

Science cafes entertain audiences motivated by social as well as intrinsic factors. Insight into the psychology of visitors to informal science centers may allow science cafe organizers to entertain and provide meaning to a diverse audience of learners.

‘Information imperialism’ is an interesting concept. Consider the effect of an open internet on China’s population. Is China saying that if people are exposed to predominately Western values, that this will overwhelm their sensibilities and become a threat to national stability?

Can the same argument be made in the US, regarding television programming? I think it can. If most Americans watch several hours of TV every week, and if that programming is shown to affect behavior (it does – violence, generational attitudes, smoking/drinking, external political efficacy, the list goes on) then at what point does national stability, or the ability of a democracy to flourish in spite of coercive consumerist propaganda, compel the US government to intervene? Unfortunately, once the people are disconnected from the political process, they lose traction and lose the voice that provides feedback to a political machine.

Challenge for the day: Engage in a political discussion about the cost and benefit of a completely corporate controlled mass media in the US. Discuss the democratic and propagandistic potentials of the internet.

voiced aspirated stops become voiced fricatives
voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives
voiced stops become voiceless stops.

Check the article below for examples. What does this mean for the English language? If these changes continue to progress, will we lose all of the sounds found frequently in Russian and High German?

Grimm’s law – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Have you heard of E-prime? E-prime is a modified form of English which encourages active voice. This reminds me of what one person I know had talked about, not using predicated something or other as a method for better communication. I think it is (note: I had first typed “It is” and correct myself) interesting how it forces the observer to acknowledge his/her subjectivity, as demonstrated below.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime

Korzybski (1879–1950) had determined that two forms of the verb ‘to be’—the ‘is’ of identity and the ‘is’ of predication—had structural problems. For example, the sentence “The coat is red” has no observer, the sentence “We see the coat as red” (where “we” indicates observers) appears more specific in context as regards light waves and colour as determined by modern science, that is, colour results from a reaction in the human brain.

Other notes: Albert Ellis’ book A New Guide to Rational Living discusses applying the avoiding reificative or stative language in daily life and leadership. Alfred North Whitehead said “There are no whole truths, all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.” One article states that for leaders, “we would do better to state our opinions as opinions”. This seems to me to tie in with a discussion on the subjectivity of science and personal reality. I am excited to find practical applications of semantic and linguistic conscientiousness.

Elsewhere among the myriad of photographs, poems, digital art and stories, a statement by Julie Berry Wibskov about “Jomiman,” an ode to her husband’s vitality and magical wonder at life. From the poem:

For him the raw nerve that shoots down his back

In a bolt is as real as his sense of connection,

Of letdown, as real as the promise God made

Him while dreaming. And all are surprising, by chance.

Artists statement:

In this poem I tried to capture the essence of my best friend, my husband–his unhindered approach to the world and the inner life that fuels that. He was born with a rare generosity and openness that draws others in, and, yet, privately has endured many struggles that test this spirit. The way he has stepped out in faith when life is cruel is a testimony to the genuineness of his nature. The way he nurtures his blessings when life is magical and showers me with endless love is a daily inspiration. Old challenges and burdens are often exchanged for new ones, and they are reminders that we’re not really in charge. But much more powerful than the burdens is the fire for what gives us joy, the hope that we’ll have joy someday or the gratitude that we have it now. Being able to celebrate throughout anything means knowing how much worse it could be and how miraculous it is to be living our lives.

“Two in three students predicted they would be ‘very good’ workers on a job in 2006 (compared with the one in two who guessed so in 1975). Thus, by 2006, two-thirds of students were predicting that they would perform in the top 20% of the population in their adult jobs.¹⁶ It is tempting to believe that this is a positive development. American culture teaches that one must be self-confident to be successful. However, self-esteem does not predict success.²² In fact, being overconfident – a fair description of a group in which two in three people expect to perform in the top 20%– actually leads to greater failure,²³ perhaps because overconfident people do not recognise when they are doing badly and need to improve.”

Link: Jean Twange. Generational changes and their impact in the classroom: teaching Generation Me. Medical Education, 43:398-405.

Link: Faculty of 1000 Biology | Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions..