Why humans believe so many ridiculous things

From Scientific American:

"We are more likely to believe a statement if it confirms our preexisting beliefs, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. Accepting a statement also requires less cognitive effort than rejecting it. Even simple traits such as language can affect acceptance: Studies have found that the way a statement is printed or voiced (or even the accent) can make those statements more believable. Misinformation is a human problem, not a liberal or conservative one"

"Misinformation is even more likely to travel and be amplified by the ongoing diversification of news sources and the rapid news cycle. Today, publishing news is as simple as clicking "send." This, combined with people's tendency to seek out information that confirms their beliefs, tends to magnify the effects of misinformation. Nyhan says that although a good dose of skepticism doesn't hurt while reading news stories, the onus to prevent misinformation should be on political pundits and journalists rather than readers. "If we all had to research every factual claim we were exposed to, we'd do nothing else"

The Prince: For real or a satire?

I have no idea #googleimages

October 1, 2012:

In talking about The Prince today, a few people have asked about the theory that Machiavelli wrote it as a satire intended to sabotage the rule of Lorenzo de Medici. 

Checking out Wikipedia where many people have said they've seen this theory, I find that much of the section on The Prince as satire depends upon two sources--Ian Johnston, a retired professor at Vancouver Island University and Mary Dietz, a professor at Northwestern University.  

While I can't completely  rule out the possibility that they may be right, it seems more likely to be rooted in the pet theories of these two individuals.  Wikipedia does mention Rousseau and some other 18th century people that may also have thought this way, but there isn't much in the way of citations to support the claim.

In absence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I'm going to go with what is the generally accepted interpretation.  Machiavelli was in part trying to get himself into the Medici's good graces, and, I think, to actually express what he thought the ideal prince would be.  This premise is backed up by most of the accepted sources, including the Encyclopedia of Renaissance History in the following quotation:

• Machiavelli had before him the model of Rome—not of imperial Rome, but of the Roman Republic. In his personal political convictions, Machiavelli ardently favored republics. Nonetheless he perceived the potential benefits of a constitutional monarchy and looked to France as a model of such a state. He thought that there were times when only a monarch could hold in check the corruption of the populace at large. [Emphasis added] He also believed that at times of imminent danger to the state no consideration of justice or injustice, pity or cruelty, or praise or blameworthiness should inhibit a ruler from acting in the best interests of the state.

If you find anything different, please don't hesitate to share with me and with the class.  It's an interesting idea that he might have intended the text to be some kind of elaborate trap.

News Apps for Smart Phones (2012)

As I've said in class, AP Lang is very much a class about debating and discussing issues that are current and relevant.  The AP Lang exam usually chooses the topics for the two argumentation essays (35% of the grade) from topics that are taken from the news of the day.

If you have a smart phone, you hold in your hand a powerful tool for accessing the news that was unavailable five years ago.  Above is a screen shot of the main news-group on my iPhone. These apps are all from reputable news sources that will aid you in developing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of current events.

See inside for a brief summary of each source and for links to their websites.  All apps can be downloaded from either Apple or Google's app stores:

Whooping cough and the Echo Chamber

From USA Today:

"Whooping cough epidemic declared in Wash. state:"  This could be a headline from the 1930s, but instead it's from May of 2012.  Whooping cough (or pertussis) is a highly contagious disease that used to cause thousands of deaths per year--mostly in infants.  With the development of the pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, whooping cough was largely eradicated in this country.  


Why is there an epidemic of the disease in Washington then?

Washington has the highest school exemption rate from vaccinations in the country (6.2%).  And, now, Washington is dealing with a pertussis epidemic.

Why does Washington have the highest vaccination exemption rate in the country and now a whooping cough epidemic?  Because of the sad fact that myth often has the power to defeat logic and fact, that's why . . . .

Sexist ads for Milk? Yup.

#TheHandmaid's Tale--From the New York Times:

Remember that "Unwritten Rules of Being a Girl" discussion we had?  It gets worse.

In July 2011, the California Milk Processor Board ran a series of ads suggesting that milk could help women control the symptoms of PMS.  The ads are based upon two small studies done in 1998 and 2005, which were not peer-reviewed or repeated in any other studies.  The studies' results suggested that 1,200 milligrams of calcium might help the symptoms of the (only) 15-20 percent of women who suffer from PMS symptoms severe enough to cause them difficulty in day-to-day life.  

The CMPR didn't let that stop them from running ads (mostly online) like the one above that cast women as being controlled by their biology and becoming so hysterical and agitated that men have to apologize to the woman for failing to understand her irrationality (which puts the actual blame on the woman) and then give her milk to somehow sedate her hysteria.

For more of these ads, click inside:

Mutant Shrimp and Fish in Gulf of Mexico

From Fox News:  On April 20, 2010, the BP oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and released 152 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  During the cleanup, BP released at least 2 million gallons of chemical "dispersant" into the gulf to break up the floating oil.  The chemical dispersants released are solvents that are quite toxic in their own right.

Commercial fishers have since been discovering large numbers (hundreds of pounds) of eyeless shrimp and crabs and malformed fish in the gulf.  

SLAPP Suits, Oprah, and Pesticides

Picture by Todd Wiseman (The Texas Tribune)

When Oprah Winfrey said on her show in 1996 that "mad cow disease" had convinced her not to eat beef, she was sued by a group Texas cattlemen for $12 million in damages.  That suit is one of the most famous examples of what are known as SLAPP suits, which stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation".

According to a Texas Tribune article from 2010, the purpose of these lawsuits is not to win anything but . . . 

SLAPP plaintiffs use the court system to bury opponents in a crush of legal fees and paperwork of Bleak House proportions. They are not about winning damages. They usually don’t expect to be successful, and their targets often don’t have the money to defend the case. [For]corporations equipped with teams of lawyers and swollen legal budgets, the cost-benefit analysis is easy: Foot the expense of a lawsuit through whatever means available — usually a defamation or libel claim — and enjoy the benefit of intimidating current and future critics into silence.

Oprah won her suit after a six week trial and $1 million spent in legal fees, but she refuses to discuss the case to this day--even after Texas passed "Anti-SLAPP" legislation in 2011.

When 60 Minutes did a story in 1989 on the pesticide Alar, its use in apple growing, and its carcinogenic properties, apple farmers sued the show for . . .

Diet soda not making us fat

Evil?

Health related journalism makes me crazy.  It's so often filled with generalizations and inaccuracies and half-formed ideas that are presented as fact.  Nutrition and fitness related reporting is the worst.  Publishers of websites and magazines know that "the latest science secret to help you get thin!" is nearly the ultimate bait to get readers' eyes on their publications.  (There's only one other topic that works better).

Recent reports suggesting that diet soda could cause weight gain have always seemed questionable.  While I'm not a huge diet soda fan, I'm also not the only one to wonder if the correlation between diet soda and weight gain might not equal causation.  

Well, a ground breaking study (#sarcasm) by researchers at the University of North Carolina has answered the question.

FDA "orders" farmers to (volunteer to) stop antibiotics

Cow

From USA Today:


The FDA has issued a "final rule" asking farms to stop giving antibiotics to animals for the purpose of fattening them up.  The guideline is not a law, and the FDA is asking farming businesses to voluntarily comply.

They will gather data for the next three years, and then decide on further action at that point.  Well, that's that, then.

Click inside for a side note on how this story is being misreported in the media.

"Food Inc." Issues In Context

After we engage in the Silent Spring debate, we watch the movie Food Inc. and discuss the issues it raises about industrialized food production.  Below are some links to further information on the issues raised in the movie:

Industry Response:

• SafeFoodInc.com:  A page created by the National Chicken Council, the National Meat Association, and other industry groups challenging the assertions made in Food Inc.

• Monsanto: Food Inc. Movie:  A page created by the multinational agricultural company Monsanto rebutting some of the claims made in the movie.

The Individual Issues:

Farm Subsidies:  

• This is a hugely controversial and poorly understood part of U.S. government policy and one on which both the far left and far right tend to agree (but for different reasons).  

• Farm subsidies result in the U.S. government paying farm companies to grow too much corn and grain by paying them a set price even if the excess supply causes a drop in market price.
• According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG)--a left leaning environmental group--the U.S. government has paid agribusinesses $170 billion  in subsidies in the past 16 years .
• The "tax payer calculator" on FoxNews.com allows people to calculate (based upon their yearly income) what tax burden is put on them from the $15 billion per year average the government pays in farm subsidies.

Persuading the Supreme Court

One of the issues about persuasion that we discuss in AP Lang is the issue of form versus content.  What matters more, how you say it or what you say?  And the answer to that question often depends upon the situation, the medium, and the person delivering the message.  An LA Times article today highlighted that issue as it applies to the Supreme Court case concerning the Obama administration's new health care law.

In the article, four Constitutional scholars were asked to evaluate both sides' arguments, and three out of four focused mainly on how the lawyers representing both sides sounded, saying things like........

Throw out your old studying habits?

Recent brain research suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about good study habits may actually be just plain wrong.  New York Times reporter Benedict Carey has written about research on learning and education and lists several suggestions for improving study time.  

Almost everyone has heard the advice to find a single, quiet place in which to study and to focus on one topic at a time.  According to the research, this approach is not the most effective.  One 1978 study found that college students who studied vocabulary words in two different rooms did better on a test than students who had studied in the same room.  Researchers think this occurred because of the brain's tendency to make unconscious associations with the differing surroundings and those associations cause more of the brain to engage, resulting in better retention of the information being studied.

Click inside for more information on the latest brain science approved studying tips.

Ash forests to be wiped out

An invasive insect from called the Emerald Ash Borer entered the United States in 2002, and it will kill nearly all ash trees it comes into contact with.  In Pennsylvania alone, over 300 million trees will be destroyed by this infestation.  They are believe to have entered the United States in the wood of packing crates from China.

Rachel Carson Tattoo, Spied!

Breaking News:  A Pennridge Student seen today in the hall with a Rachel Carson tattoo on his arm.  When asked why, he said, "I just feel that her contribution to the dialogue about our environment is too important not to make a statement about it."


Check inside for a high resolution look!

The Lainhart Files Haiku

Brenna E. wrote an (excellent) haiku about this blog.  And check inside for her Godot and Rachel Carson haiku:

The Lainhart Files

There he sits at home

Typing things vigorously

Only his wife will read.

Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants' Facebook passwords

From MSNBC:

"If you think privacy settings on your Facebook and Twitter accounts guarantee future employers or schools can't see your private posts, guess again.Employers and colleges find the treasure-trove of personal information hiding behind password-protected accounts and privacy walls just too tempting, and some are demanding full access from job applicants and student athletes.

In Maryland, job seekers applying to the state's Department of Corrections have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall.

Things about Writing Papers I keep Forgetting to Say

In list form; in no particular order:

• The seventh (most recent edition of the MLA Handbook) requires that all titles of books be italicized, not underlined.

• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) continues to be one of the best sources of information on paper formatting in both MLA and APA style

• That whole last post is about your job as a paper writer, which boils down to this--find information that correlates with the argument you are making and then do your best to prove the correlation exists and is significant.

Why do I have to write this paper?

Why do teachers make such a big deal about writing research papers?  Why do they assign so many points to them and spend so much time on them if they’re just another assignment for school?  The answer lies deep within the core of the academic world.  

At colleges and universities, professors talk about facing the pressure to “publish or perish.”  They often are required to write and publish a certain number of articles in academic journals to show that they remain on the cutting edge of their field.  Those professors (in the humanities especially) emphasize paper writing as one of the main methods of evaluating student knowledge of a given topic.  The roots for this emphasis extend all the way back to Ancient Greece and Rome (and beyond) when humans began recording their societies’ knowledge and preserving it for the future.  As technologies such as paper and printing presses evolved, the emphasis on writing down knowledge grew even stronger.  As colleges and universities developed around the world, recording new discoveries and publishing them for public evaluation became the gold standard for proving an idea’s merit.  Even today in the time of the Internet, published text is still the primary source of information on the web—even Google admits that this is the case.  And so, the scholarly paper remains, especially in the academic world, as the primary way a student demonstrates his or her grasp of a subject.

Kony 2012: Four Stars on Charity Navigator

The charity Invisible Children is generating much buzz right now because of their Kony 2012 video that is circulating on Facebook and the rest of the web.  While the film itself has generated some controversy for being  heavy on pathos and light on information, it's difficult to criticize a movement that is attempting to raise awareness of the plight of children in war torn countries.

The point of this post is not to add to that debate but to introduce an excellent website for evaluating a charity before you give it money.  That site is called Charity Navigator and the image below is from their rating of the "Invisible Children" charity, who get a fairly solid 3 out of 4 star rating.  Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization whose aim is to help people give wisely to charities that will put the money they receive to good use.  Below is a Charity Navigator graphic depicting their rating for "Invisible Children":

Umwelt--The limits of our perception

Umwelt:  the word umwelt comes from the theories of a German biologist named Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944), and it refers to every organism's tendency only to perceive that which is meaningful to it.  Uexkull uses a wildflower as his example.  He explains that an ant that climbs the flower to reach the petals sees the flower as a kind of ladder.  A little girl that plucks the flower to put into her hair sees it as a decoration.  A cow that eats the flower sees it as food, little different from the other grasses and plants around it. A bee sees the flower bud as a source of pollen, etc, etc.  The major point being that neither the cow or the girl or the ant will see the flower in the same way nor will they consider the perspective of the other organisms.

Psychologists apply the idea of umwelt to humans and our approach to the world around us.  In  other words, we all carry biases inherent to our biology, our upbringing, and our identity.  That tendency toward umwelt should remind us to be careful trusting the objectivity of our own opinions and assuming that we don't all wear some kind of metaphorical blinders.

Does Texting Harm Language Ability?

Frequent Texters More Likely to Reject Unfamiliar Words

From PsychCentral:

A new linguistic study suggests university students who extensively text are less accepting of new words.

In the investigation, graduate student Joan Lee designed an experiment to understand the effect of text messaging on language. She found texting has a negative impact on people’s linguistic ability to interpret and accept words . . . .

Motorists Angry Over Traffic Camera Surveillance

From NPR:

Join the outrage coming from hundreds of communities using red-light and speed cameras, which, to many an angry driver, seem to be lurking everywhere. Automated photo enforcement has gained wide support among local officials as a proven method of reducing collisions and enforcing traffic laws, freeing officers to respond to more serious crimes.

Parkland To Sell Ad Space Inside its Buses

The Parkland School District is believed to be the first district in the state to sell ad space inside its buses as a way to generate revenue.

High school and elementary students in theParkland School District are going to see advertisements inside their school buses.

The Parkland School Board voted 7-1 on Tuesday night to sell ad space inside 46 of the district's 96 school buses, a move that is expected to generate $150,000 for the district.

If the pilot program is successful, it will be expanded to the district's full fleet, generating twice the revenue, officials said.

http://southwhitehall.patch.com/articles/bus-ads-12938997

• By Mary Ellen Alu

Surveillance drones cleared for use within th U.S.

From The New York Times

Drones With an Eye on the Public Cleared to Fly: A new law will permit drones of all kinds in American airspace by 2015, which concerns privacy advocates who decry expanding surveillance boundaries.

Google "accidentally" spying on your iPhone and iPad

Google hit with FTC complaint, says circumventing Safari privacy features accidental:

(From www.arstechnica.com)





The Consumer Watchdog advocacy group today asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google violated a previous privacy agreement with the FTC by tracking cookies in a way that circumvents default privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser.

Google's method of getting around Safari's default blockage of third-party cookies was detailed today in a study by Stanford grad student Jonathan Mayer and in two articles in the Wall Street Journal. One Journal headline calls it "Google's iPhone tracking," but the technique actually works across iPhones, iPads, iPod touches, and desktop computers. After being contacted by the Journal, Google disabled the code that had allowed it to install tracking cookies on Safari, even though the browser is designed to block such cookies by default.

Professional Help: 5 Ways to Get People at War to Start Cooperating

Professional Help: 5 Ways to Get People at War to Start Cooperating:

From The Atlantic

Social psychologist Daniel Balliet shares his research-based recipe for harmony for warring partners, teams, and, of course, political parties.

Though humans can be incredibly productive when they collaborate, they can also be incredibly stubborn when obsessed with their own self-interests.

Thankfully, social psychologists like VU University Amsterdam's Daniel Balliet have uncovered plenty about conflict resolution during such social dilemmas where individual or party interests clash with the greater good. For this week's Professional Help, he reviews past research, including his own recent paper in Psychological Bulletin, to come up with the perfect recipe for society during these divided times: five tips to help warring romantic partners, team members, and, of course, political parties to cooperate.

Talk about the situation. Research has shown that meeting up to discuss the social dilemma at hand increases cooperation. When participants in one study were allowed to express their desire to work together, not only were they more inclined to do so, they also felt guilty when they didn't. Moreover, don't rely on text or email. Another study found that written messages don't promote as much cooperation as face-to-face or video communication.

Reward people who pitch in and punish free-riders. Since social dilemmas involve a conflict between self-interest and collective interest, creating incentives for teamwork and penalties for unruliness may even the playing field and make cooperation equally beneficial for everyone. This tactic, however, tends to be more effective for social dilemmas that involve repeated interactions. For example, punishment may engender solidarity in a long-term employee, but might do little to a temporary hire.

Monitor reputations for cooperation. People want to come off as obliging and reliable partners because such an image pays off. Research finds that when people are negotiating with another person who they know has been generous toward others during previous interactions, they tend to be more inclined to take a risk and collaborate with that person.

When possible, keep group size small. Studies have shown that people tend to be less cooperative in large groups where they tend to feel anonymous and think that their efforts have little impact. However, if a big team is necessary, then try to make members believe that their behavior is critical for the group outcome and that they're accountable for their contributions.

Make the other party aware of the future. People are more likely to cooperate with those they think they'll meet again because they understand that a specific interaction is only one in many. Also, when you're dealing with selfish negotiators continually, communicate your intolerance of non-cooperation early on. Research shows that they'll always take advantage of the situation when they think they can.

Image: Patrizia Tilly/Shutterstock.

Rachel Carson = MVP

From The Atlantic:

A Conversation With Andrew Deutz, Conservationist:

As the director of the Nature Conservancy's International Government Relations Department, Andrew Deutz is responsible for overseeing TNC's international policy work on climate change and protected areas and managing relationships with donor agencies and intergovernmental organizations. Prior to joining TNC, Deutz worked for the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and served as lead forest negotiator for the U.S. State Department and forest policy advisor to the World Bank.

Here, Deutz discusses the significant advances in understanding the economics of nature that have been made over the last few years; why we must realize that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment and that a healthy environment is necessary for long-term economic growth and stability; and why the real prices for basic commodities and everyday essentials like food, water, and energy are rising and will continue to do so as the global middle class expands.

What do you say when people ask you, 'What do you do?'

I tell most people that I work for the Nature Conservancy and my role is to get governments to change policies and move money to invest in natural capital to help solve big problems like climate change, water availability, food security, and poverty.

Who are three people or organizations that you would put in a Hall of Fame for your field?

Rachel Carson, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Maurice Strong.

What other field or occupation did you consider going into?

Human rights advocacy.

What website or app most helps you do your job on a daily basis?

A combination of international news sites: UN Wire, BBC, NYTimes.com, The Economist, etc.

Google Groups Assignment: Global Warming Debate

Global Warming:  Open for Debate?

Please read the articles listed below, go to Google Groups and, using the information from those articles, take an informed position on the issue of Global Warming.  Then, come in to class ready to knowledgeably debate the issues raised.  

• Peter Gleick claims editorial bias against global warming at Wall Street Journal
• Wall Street Journal publishes letter from 16 scientists questioning global warming
• Science magazine publishes rebuttal letter signed by 255 scientists

 Questions to consider:

• What is the National Academy of Sciences?
• Does the Wall Street Journal's known conservative leanings impact its ethos?
• Do the signatures of 255 scientists "beat" the signatures of 16 scientists?

Big Brother is tracking you?

Legality of Mobile Phone Tracking Still Unclear Despite Supreme Court GPS Decision:


From www.wired.com:

The Supreme Court’s blockbuster GPS decision Monday afforded American’s new constitutional privacy protections against warrantless government tracking.

But the justices stopped short of clearly spelling out how wide those rights actually are — or when exactly a warrant would be needed.

The case tested whether the police may secretly attach a GPS device to a vehicle and track its every move without a probable-cause warrant. The judges made it clear that the physical act of putting a tracker on the vehicle constituted a search and that police would be wise to get a proper search warrant, even though the justices didn’t outright say they had to.

Latest from Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Since we've been following Colbert's satirical (but very real) Super Pac, I thought I'd update you with their latest email.  He and Stewart are having a mock fight over control of the Super Pac.  They're actually collecting donations (please don't).  I can't figure out who would:

Read Widely

Politically Neutral News Sites:

• BBC News
• The Economist
• The Atlantic

Politically Moderate News Sites:

• The New York Times
• Moderate liberal (Democrat)
• Strongly liberal tendencies on Opinion pages

• The Washington Post
• Moderate Conservative (Republican)
• Strongly conservative tendencies on Opinion pages