WEEK TEN...READING, BLOGGING, WRITING

Hi there, good 305ers!
As this is the last week, and as we have a big project due this week, there will be no other required blogging.

If, however, you have a question about the project or simply want to brainstorm an idea regarding your project, feel free to ask questions on here.

The Tipping Point is a book that has applications all over the place, so if you have an idea and want to get some conformation on it, post it here--or email me.
Here are some examples that I have thought about in the past week:
>>>food culture(ever since the original Iron Chef, food has become an obsession in the U.S.);
>>>wine culture;
>>>sushi (seriously, there was a time when Bako had no sushi restaurants);
>>>barefoot running(even Nike now has minimalist shoes);
>>>mud races, color me rad races;
>>>cancer awareness walks;
>>>paper or plastic? ecological awareness;
>>>ipads in the classroom;
>>>common core in education;
>>>slavoj zizek(if you are a philosophy major, you  might know him);
>>>ted talks;
>>>digital data storage in hospitals;
>>>smart infusion patient care;
>>>robotic surgery;
>>>various ideas regarding globalization in business(read the World is Flat if you have not);
>>>neuroplasticity in kinesiology.

That was just a quick brainstorm. But for each of those, there are implications that can be gleaned by examining the idea in light of the Gladwell book.

Enjoy!

dr. s

FINAL ESSAY OF THE QUARTER: THE TIPPING POINT

FOR THIS ESSAY, THERE ARE TWO MAJOR REQUIREMENTS. 
First, you must write the essay...duh.
Second, you must email the essay to a classmate. The classmate will revise and edit and send the essay back to you.

Let's start with the essay itself. The essay is about 3 pages, double spaced. There are two questions that you can write about:
1. How might one or more of the ideas in the book The Tipping Point apply to your chosen profession or major? 

2. How relevant is this idea of a tipping point? To discuss this question, locate a trend [social, political, cultural, other] that seems to exhibit a "tipping point" phenomenon. Provide a brief explanation of why you think this phenomenon meets any or all of Gladwell's three criteria for tipping point phenomenon: a) contagiousness b) little causes having big effects c) not gradual but dramatic change. 

FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY!!!

On or before March 14, you will email your essay to a classmate. (I will notify you who that will be)
Once you receive a classmate's essay, you will comment on it, suggesting numerous ways to improve the essay.
You will then email the essay back to the author AND TO ME by Monday the 17th of March.

The final essay will be due to turnitin on March 21. 

WEEK NINE BLOG ENTRY...the Neruda question.

I can never tell what is going to happen with you great 305ers, so let's see what you do with some Neruda. The poet Pablo Neruda wrote a book filled with questions: contradictory, existential, poetic, a bit Buddhist, too, if you ask me.
So, read these and then add your own Neruda style questions. You can copy his style all you want.
Later in the week, comment on or respond to some of the questions that people pose.

Without further ado, here are the Neruda questions:


In what language does rain
fall over tormented cities?

How do the oranges divide up
sunlight in the orange tree?

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

And what did the rubies say
standing before the juice of pomegranates?

Why doesn't Thursday talk itself
into coming after Friday?

Does he who is always waiting suffer more
than he who’s never waited for anyone?

Who shouted with glee
when the color blue was born?

Why does the earth grieve
when the violets appear?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?
― Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions    

WEEK NINE READING

Read the Tipping Point this week.
You have more than just this week for it, but by all means, get started. It is a good read. And fear not, I know some of you found the last book a bit sad. This one is not sad, but it is great!

WEEK NINE WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ

Find a good sentence in the Tipping Point. Write it here and discuss why it matters.

WEEK EIGHT BLOG ENTRY

What was your favorite game to play as a child? Did this activity involve other children or family members?
What is the meaning of play?


----on a completely unrelated animal note, you may also answer this----

I have a friend who always insists that animals do not play. I would always argue with him that if you watch a dog chase a ball, it sure looks like play. He says no. Animals don't play; they practice for real world engagements. Even domesticated beasts simply act out of instinct. What do you think? Do animals play?

WEEK EIGHT READING

THIS MAY SEEM AN ODD READING FOR THE WEEK, BUT THE IDEA OF "RENT" PARTIES IS FASCINATING, AKIN TO THE CROWD-FUNDING OF SITES LIKE KICKSTARTER.

Langston Hughes' Collection of Harlem Rent Party Advertisements:

These cards, collected by Langston Hughes and held with his papers in Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, advertised “rent parties” to be held in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s.

Hosts of these gatherings opened up their apartments for a night, charging a fee to guests in return for live music, dancing, and socializing. Food was extra, and the accumulated cash went to help the hosts pay their rent. Sandra L. West points out that black tenants in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s faced discriminatory rental rates. That, along with the generally lower salaries for black workers, created a situation in which many people were short of rent money. These parties were originally meant to bridge that gap.

As advertisements for the parties, the cards name the kind of musical entertainment attendees could expect using lyrics from popular songs or made-up rhyming verse as slogans. Kathleen Drowne writes that the cards always used euphemisms to name the parties’ purpose. You can see the use of the names “Social Whist Party” and “Social Party” here, but Drowne also mentions cards from the 1920s that advertised shindigs under the names “Too Terrible Party,” “Boogie,” or “Tea Cup Party.”

How did Hughes come to collect these cards? The poet wrote about rent parties and rent party cards in the Chicago Defender in 1957, explaining, “When I first came to Harlem, as a poet I was intrigued by the little rhymes at the top of most House Rent Party cards, so I saved them. Now I have quite a collection.”
 

Hughes noted that rent parties seemed to disappear after the Depression but had returned in the postwar era: “Maybe it is inflation today and the high cost of living that is causing the return of the pay-at-the-door and buy-your-refreshments parties.” He argued that these new parties weren’t as fun as the older ones had been, since live music had been superseded by recorded entertainment. The new cards, however, “are just as amusing as the old ones.”

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FINALLY, go to the site below to see the examples of the "rent" party cards:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/03/14/rent_parties_langston_hughes_collection_of_rent_party_cards.html