Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard President, Society of Experiential Trance Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
Good to see Bill Gates and his foundation are making a big push on educational awareness in the US, finding avenues to encourage kids to finish school in ways that actually speak to the kids and not just preach at them . . . in venues or contexts that the kids frequent too . . . the New York Times has a piece about his effort at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802422.html (note the dismal . . . no, apalling . . . numbers for American kids who actually finish school . . . in many ways the US is falling way behind quite a few of the countries that Americans like to pretend are backwaters of the world). US infrastructure is having problems (we have had cellphone service all over the world including some countries that are quite comfortably third world but as soon as we touched down in the US this last trip cell service became problematic) . . . more and more kids are homeless right now in the US . . . education has never been much of a priority for kids who live in the underdeveloped countryside or the urban jungle and now it's become even less a priority for kids who live in the so-called comfortable areas. This does not bode well unless initiatives are taken right now. The US has become underproductive and undercompetitive and unfortunately trends seem to point to that continuing. The Gates program is at least a point in the right direction.
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard President, Society of Experiential Trance Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
For those of you attending the HYPNOSUMMIT 2.0 on 19-20 Sept. 2009 - http://www.hypnosummit.com - the Society of Experiential Trance (SET) - http://www.trancesociety.org - will be accepting Continuing Education Credits for attendance of conference sessions.
If you are a current SET member in good standing, after the conference, simply email the Society with your name, the dates/times of the sessions you attend and a brief summary of the content covered.
We strongly encourage you to attend the sessions live.
A number of SET instructors presented at the first Hypnosummit and many will be back supporting the second (and the next, etc.). The SET's charter is one based upon open access and inclusive community building and that vision is very much in line with the Hypnosummit mission. We are happy to support this exciting conference.
For those of you who are not members of the Society of Experiential Trance - http://www.trancesociety.org - you know, you really should be - - or, if you are a member of another hypnosis organization (actually, the SET encourages you to be a member of more than one professional hypnosis organization, some of them are even actually pretty gosh-darned good), be sure to check as a number of organizations have jumped on the bandwagon and are now offerring CEUs for Hypnosummit attendance. Actually, the list has grown since the first one.
If you haven't signed up for this amazing online event, be sure to to to http://www.hypnosummit.com and register now. Feel free to put my name in as a referall (you don't have to but I appreciate it as there is a bit of a contest for referrals so please just drop "Brian David Phillips" into that referral slot when you sign up).
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard President, Society of Experiential Trance Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
Given my long-time position as an Associate Professor at an elite university, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that I've done a lot of work in using hypnosis and trance in learning enhancement or skills improvement. One technique I use is what I call the Vicarious eXperiential Machine Process, which is a form of deep trance identification. Now, in the video here, I use a brief variation for physical skill improvement. The full version will use video or photographs as well (take a seminar for more on that). The clip here is of me performing hypnosis with an actress in India:
If you can't see the included video here because you are reading this blog post via a Facebook note or Hypnothoughts sidebar or some other stream service, then go to the original post on my blog at http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/ to access the full post with any videos or photos included.
Obviously, you can very likely imagine a number of contexts in which someone could use this sort of setup. Certainly as a comedy or recreational process it has many applications.
We will be exploring improvisational and creative ways of achieving similar effects off-the-cuff during the Walkabout Trance Beach Resort Getaway (the improvisational speed street hypnosis event coming Aug. 15-16 at http://walkabouttrancebeachresortgetaway.blogspot.com).
For those looking for adult erotic applications, well you can imagine where one might gently stroke or what sort of shenanigans might go on for this sort of thing.
Folks attending the Erotic Hypnosis seminar I will be teaching (the Engineering eXperiential Erotic Ecstasy seminar at http://ehbrg.blogspot.com)
in August will be learning variations of these patterns and more.
Yes, the folks who attend the upcoming EROTIC HYPNOSIS seminar on Aug. 17 - http://ehbrg.blogspot.com
- will also learn a great many techniques with an erotic twist and
much, much, more. They will also learn how to induce consensual full
body orgasms with a single word and very much more.
Sign Up Now EROTIC HYPNOSIS a comprehensive course in erotic and sensual hypnosis for any context from therapy to entertainment to consenting adult recreation http://ehbrg.blogspot.com NOW for registration!
The seminar is open to beginners through experienced hypnotists, all
we require is that you be at least twenty-one years of age for the
adult seminar and have a genuine curiosity in the subject matter with a
willingness to come in and play. No, there is no nudity in the Erotic Hypnosis
course nor is there anything untoward - as long as you don't consider
inducing consensual orgasms and erotic experiences in others as
untoward. The techniques taught can be applied to a wide range of
situations in a variety of appropriate contexts from therapy to
entertainment to recreational activities between consenting adults.
Anyone is welcome, couples or singles, male or female, straight or
not-so-straight, with special pricing available for couples and even
more price advantages for groups of three or more.
Go to http://ehbrg.blogspot.com for more information and register right away to reserve your spot in the very special presentation of the Erotic Hypnosis program.
Note that folks who sign up for the Walkabout Trance Beach Resort Getaway (the improvisational speed street hypnosis event at http://walkabouttrancebeachresortgetaway.blogspot.com) and-or the Erotic Hypnosis seminar (the Engineering eXperiential Erotic Ecstasy seminar at http://ehbrg.blogspot.com)
in August will be learning variations of these patterns and more.
Please note, that it's actually to your advantage to sign up for both
events (they are scheduled together for your convenience).
However,
it's to your advantage to sign up early for either or both events to reserve your opportunity to
attend. I don't travel to the US very often and likewise teach these
courses very infrequently so this is a unique opportunity for folks to
have an amazing experience with us. If you have not yet completed your registration for these events, you will really want to do so NOW to ensure your opportunity to participate in a very very unique experience.
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard President, Society of Experiential Trance Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really
going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work
force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be
competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to
34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.” - from Higher Education May Soon Be Unaffordable for Most Americans in today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/education/03college.html).
Check the statistics on how much it costs families to send their kids to college . . . that's a huge chunk out of their yearly income and it's getting bigger.
Please email Lorraine at yuklan.law@msa.hinet.net to finalize your registration in the LEARNING ENHANCEMENT HYPNOSIS 改善學習能力的催眠法 course now. Once you email her, she will make sure you're set.
DATES: October 18-19, 2008 LOCATION: Taipei, Taiwan REGISTRATION: contact Lorraine Phillips at yuklan.law@msa.hinet.net to register. International guests should contact Lorraine about accommodation suggestions or other matters. http://www.briandavidphillips.com
Learn to learn in ways that enhance the way you understand and use new skills. Accelerated learning is only the beginning. Welcome to a hands-on practical course in educational enhancement hypnosis methods. This is a comprehensive practical course in accelerated educational enhancement hypnosis techniques with a hands-on approach to mastering the skills presented. This course is appropriate for hypnotists, educators, parents, coaches, and anyone concerned with improving the learning curve and mastering skills. The methods presented can be applied in a very wide range of contexts.
Alan Moore reads from Masks of the Illuminati at the Robert Anton Wilson Memorial event held in London, March 2007. The youtube is here.
Next, Alan Moore presents a more personal eulogy for the author with references to Wilson's life and work in his own words and heartfelt delivery. The youtube is here.
As regular readers here know, Robert Anton Wilson is my all time favorite author (I re-read Illuminatus every couple of years and enjoy it more and more each time). While I have always enjoyed Moore's work in comic books and graphic novels, lately I've been reading more of his work in mind and fantasy, magickal philosophy and practice and finding him to be delightful . . . well, at least to me. There is a treasure trove of videos on the various sharing sites for those with cursory interest.
DATES: October 18-19, 2008 LOCATION: Taipei, Taiwan (Venue Announced After Registration Finalization) LIMITED SEATING: Positions in the class are filled on the basis of first-come first-served. PREREQUISITE: previous experience not required REGISTRATION: contact Lorraine Phillips at yuklan.law@msa.hinet.net to register. International guests should contact Lorraine about accommodation suggestions or other matters. Registration closes Oct. 11. http://www.briandavidphillips.com
Learn to learn in ways that enhance the way you understand and use new skills. Accelerated learning is only the beginning. Welcome to a hands-on practical course in educational enhancement hypnosis methods leading to specialist certificate in Learning Enhancement Hypnosis with the Society of Experiential Trance. This is a comprehensive practical course in accelerated educational enhancement hypnosis techniques with a hands-on approach to mastering the skills presented. This course is appropriate for hypnotists, educators, parents, coaches, and anyone concerned with improving the learning curve and mastering skills. The methods presented can be applied in a very wide range of contexts.
The course is taught in English (we provide English to Chinese interpretation for those requesting it, please contact Lorraine for details).
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For correspondence, information in Chinese, or for questions regarding Chinese interpretation, please contact Lorraine Yuk-Lan Law Phillips at yuklan.law@msa.hinet.net
After watching some ghost hunting type programs and discussing critical approaches to such material, students in one of the courses I teach at National Chengchi University in Taipei this past semester created their
own videos related to haunted locations in Taiwan. They were to demonstrate some degree of critical thinking in their videos about actual locations and events (although some dramatization would be
allowed).
You can judge their success . . . here are their projects . . .
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted University
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted Elevator
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted Pavilion
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted Apartments
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted Dorm
HAUNTED TAIWAN: Haunted Time Loop
Keep in mind that this is not a television production course so these were in no way expected to be broadcast quality.
All the best, Brian
Sign Up NOW!
:
UNDERSTANDING TAROT Taipei, Taiwan (13 July 2008) METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS Taipei, Taiwan (19-20 July 2008) RECREATIONAL HYPNOSIS Taipei, Taiwan (9-10 August 2008) SPEED HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES India (August 30-31, Sept. 3-4, 6-7 2008) HYPNOTIC SCRIPTWRITING FOR RECORDING Taipei, Taiwan (22 Sept. 2008) LEARNING ENHANCEMENT HYPNOSIS Taipei, Taiwan (19-20 October 2008)
On 26 December 2008, I presented a workshop on "Inspiring Creativity in the Classroom" to senior studetns in an elite English program at Taipei First Girls High School, the top girls high school in Taiwan.
The program is an adaptation of one I have presented elsewhere to teachers and is comprised of improvisational language structures (which I have adapted from improvisational theatre games), guided imagery, and a demonstration of hypnosis for stress reduction and study skills enhancement (the students had signed parental consent forms for the hypnosis demonstration - the teacher tells me that every single student received parental permission, most enthusastically).
The three-hour workshop was a resounding success. The teacher (a former university student of mine) tells me the kids got a LOT out of it and couldn't stop talking about the experience for days.
For other educators in Taiwan, I am happy to present this or similar programs by special arrangement for your students or events. See http://www.briandavidphillips.com for contact details and more information. If you don't see a specific program that fits your needs, email me and we will design something perfect for you.
All the best, Brian
Sign Up NOW!
:
TAROT TRANCE Taipei, Taiwan (25 May 2008) METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS Taipei, Taiwan (21-22 June 2008) SPEED HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES India (August 30-31, Sept. 3-4, 6-7 2008)
This sucks . . . When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web . . . what a teacher does in their private page or elsewhere is their own damned business. It has nothing to do with their job performance but young teachers are being fired because of their Facebook or Myspace pages. Sucks much.
A number of folks enjoyed the Test Your Awareness video which is an example of selective attention and bypassing the critical factor of the conscious mind. That is an intriguing advert which hedges its bets on ensuring that folks do not notice the dancing bear through color and motion masquing.
However, it is still a very clear demonstration of the effect. Actually, I found it to be a wonderful demonstration as the concentration on the "white" players is definately enhanced. This is not the original variation of the test and there are other variations out there.
So . . . in the interest of having more fun with perception . . . here are some more videos of various social psychology and other experiments as well as a few that have been adapted into popular entertainment. The principles demonstrated are very powerful and extremely influential.
Visual Selective Attention Experiment Becklen and Cervone (1983)
Selective Awareness Dancing Bear
Selective Attention Kids Version
Change Blindness Harvard Experiment
Change Blindness: Person Swap Derren Brown
Change Blindness Young People Person Swap
Social Psychology Experiment Students of University of Westminster (London)
Social Psychology Experiment Crowds and Helping those in Distress
Conformity S. Asche
Milgram Obedience Experiment 1963
Milgram Obedience Experiment Derren Brown
Stanford Prison Experiment
Human Perception of Time David Eagelman
Heightened Sensory Perception Lee
Extra Sensory Perception Adam Wasdin
As a number of the courses I teach at the university are in regard to critical thinking and communication with a very heavy component on influence, I often have my own students design their own experiments to test social influence principles (such as the "laws of influence" described in Robert Cialdini's book Influence: Science and Practice and more - yes, you can get that book and others related to social influence at the bookstore) as I find that when students are able to demonstrate through personal direct experience they understand the principles so much more powerfully than simply reading about them in a text.
Since I believe in experiential critical thinking, once in awhile, I will ask students to test bogus theories or controversial ones in addition to more accepted rules of social influence or behavior. On a few occassions I have presented such material in class as if it were true and then asked them to test the theory to encourage original thought and a sense of relying upon empirical data rather than simply accepting uncritically material presented by a so-called authority figure a la Milton Rokeach's model of the mind or Cialdini's so-called law of power (albeit, I do occassionally warn my students that sometimes I lie in class so they need to be careful and watchful of the material).
All the best, Brian
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SPEED HYPNOSIS Taipei, Taiwan (12-13 April 2008)
EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS Los Angeles, California (14-18 July 2008)
METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS Los Angeles, California (26-27 July 2008)
TRANCE-ACTING Los Angeles, California (2 August 2008)
These are a short film projects in which students were asked to adapt a literary work into a short film. This project was completed by students in my Literature and Film class at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, as part of a classroom project.
The Girl Who Changed Her Fate
Candy House
Cupid and Psyche
Little Sparkler Girl
MomoTaro-San
Three Genjias
Three Sons of Fortune
Troy
And now for something completely different . . . not by my students but very kool anyway . . .
Batman Dead End
That's what I've got so far . . . a couple groups still haven't handed in their assignments . . . hopefully they will get them in before the Jan. 16 deadline. After that, have a great Winter Vacation and Happy Chinese New Year!
Not a lot there right now, but we will be adding new products and categories over time (I probably will just have the one bookstore for all of my interests instead of several small stores for different sites and just expand the categories).
It will be easier to keep everything under one roof that way.
If there's something you feel I really must list that's available from Amazon, the let me know and I'll consider adding it). I will likely material sent to us for a reveiwer here in a category here and in the bookstore as well so it's easier for folks to access.
Dan Gilbert presents a delightful short lecture on happiness and synthetic happiness.
In this memorable talk, Dan Gilbert demonstrates just how poor we humans are at predicting (or understanding) what will make us happy.
Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard University where he does all sorts of nifty stuff in the study of happiness (hedonic psychology). His webpage is here (Hedonic Psychology Laboratory) and you can read his blog here. He is the author of Stumbling on Happiness. The video was recorded in February 2004 at Monterey, California, and is part of the TEDtalks programs (see http://www.ted.com for more TEDtalks).
Yes, synthetic happiness is pretty much as valid as real happiness. Just as experiential trance experience can be as valid and as powerful an experience as genuine actual experience. Yes, it's true . . . it's all in your head. I've been bathing in Tim Leary and Robert Anton Wilson of late and have been revisiting the old HEAD Revolution materials . . . Hedonic Evolution And Development as well as the old SMI2LE materials (Smpice Migration + Increased Intelligence + Life Extention) and the old RICH Economy manifesto (Rising Income through Cypbernetic Homeostasis) and the hedonic engineering aspect of the psychedelic psychology movement has always drawn me to it.
In any case, Gilbert's lecture is delightful, thought-provoking, and well worth the twenty minutes and more.
All the best, Brian
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Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
For those of you in Taiwan . . . on Thursday, March 15, I will be presenting on "Neurolinguistic Programming Techniques for Language Learners: Interdisciplinary Strategies for Affective Links in Learning" at the 2007 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL and Applied Linguistics hosted by Ming Chuan University (at the Taoyuan campus).
My session is in the afternoon from four to five. This is a university sponsored academic international conference.
The joys of higher education . . . relieving the stress of examinations . . . UCLA Undie Run Photo Essay . . . how come none of the schools I attended or have taught at have this tradition? We really need this, perhaps it should become a mandatory part of higher education . . . or, perhaps not.
Timely . . . At $9.95 a Page, You Expected Poetry? . . . the English Department at National Chengchi University where I am an Associate Professor just increased formal penalties for students caught plagiarizing. This New York Times article compares the quality of some of the wretched internet buy a term paper resources, finding them well below the A standards they proclaim . . . but they are recognizing that it is easier for teachers to discover plagiarism. Many of these places now sell "original" term papers that are guaranteed to be unplagiarized . . . albeit the quality is often worse than what their customers could have written on their own.
Erick Heroux discovers that students in Taiwan know as much about their own history as American students know about the sixties . . . 2-28 Day in Taiwan: Truth & Reconciliation? Face it, Erick, we're old farts and anything prior to 1990 might as well be ancient history. Come to think of it, I think I've pretty much blocked out most of the stuff from before 1989 myself.
Okay . . . that makes sense . . . English textbook from Japan circa the 1980s . . . when I first came to Taiwan back in 1989, I went out with a girl who had a small handbook with similar phrases although her text was a bit strange in that the English was very sexual while the Chinese explanations were very vanilla so "Do you want to shack up?" was translated as something along the lines of "Do you need a place to stay?" There was an old Monty Python sketch about a phrasebook that had really obscene statements being taught to immigrants as common and polite expressions. I remember it being very funny. Little did I know when I first saw that bit that it is a reality.
Noah posts about a teacher who was attacked by a mob after he used scissors to cut the ears of a slew of students because they were not able to memorize religious verses to his satisfaction. A number of the kids were barely over six and required stitches. The teacher's defence?
"As the students were creating chaos I just wanted to scare them by showing the scissors," Mr. Sardar told local journalists. "Probably at the time an evil force mounted on me."
Ah, yes, the ol' Satan's humping my leg defence. As a parent, I can tell you that defence just isn't going to hold much water with most folks. I suspect I would have been right there with the rest of the angry mob if someone were to do anything like that to my child.
Dude, you're a teacher . . . either learn classroom management with patience and how to deal with kids in a gentle yet respectful way . . . or change your fucking profession! Fear is no way to teach children.
In a major embarrassment, 203 English-language teachers must switch to other subjects or face the sack in September after failing to meet the government's language proficiency requirements. That represents a third of just over 600 teachers who had to meet the requirement this year.
The government has set new standards and is planning that all teachers who are newly employed must pass while the older teachers have ways to avoid the exam, but even these must take a course. Eventually, the system will be in place to require proficiency.
There's a great deal of controversy on all sides of this one. See the article for more details.
How do the so-called elite universities deal with the problem? Princeton recently proposed that faculty award an A grade only to 35% of students in a course. This sort of arbitrary system may seem heavy-handed but at some point something has to be done. An honors degree isn't really very honorable if only one in ten folks don't have it.
While there are many factors contributing to grade inflation, it is fiscal policy that seems to be overwhelming. When schools begin viewing students as clients to be kept happy, grades rise based upon attitude rather than upon merit.
Another factor is isolation of grading. Many faculty are unaware of what the trend or average is within their discipline. By having the data available to them, they are more likely to grade towards a trend rather than arbitrarily high . . . particularly if a public policy of what the typical average performance assumption were. So, if in discussion and policy they have decided that "all things being equal" a typical grade should be a B- in their discipline, then they are more likely to grade towards the median trend . . . albeit with the freedom to turn in a higher average when they honestly feel they have a class of high-rather-than-medium performers.
The tendency to grade high is more prevalent in some disciplines than others. Michael Berube points out:
English departments have basically worked on the A/B binary system for some time: A's and A-minuses for the best students, B's for everyone else and C's, D's and F's for students who miss half the classes or threaten their teachers with bodily harm. At Penn State, A's accounted for 47 percent of the grades in English in 2002. The numbers are similar for sociology, comparative literature and psychology -- and indeed for the College of Liberal Arts as a whole. The sciences and engineering, notoriously, are stingier.
Unfortunately, recalibrating is not the only answer. The job market makes it very difficult for graduates to compete without higher grade averages. In Taiwan, most universities artificially inflate international grade transcripts to increase the rate of acceptance in overseas schools and competitive local employers will not look at students with GPAs below a certain average. One professor at Harvard actually gave his students two grades, one that was public for the registrar which was inflated and another that was private and showed actual judgement of student performance.
Well, while I might be a little happier imagining glass ceilings and mythical barriers to my success, the bitter truth may just be that I'm just a tad on the lazy side squandering my potential. Even if the low score I received on the online variation of the classic IQ test were correct (it's a good six points lower than scores I received on standardized tests in my grad school days oh so long ago when dinosaurs walked the Earth), then according to this Definition of IQ, there should be no significant barriers to my success and that I am on the high side for the typical "eminent professor" . . . so, I must just be lazy. Okay. I buy that. Looking deep inside my soul, I know I enjoy enjoying my life and family more than some of the workaholic types I've met. So, there you go.
Of course, I know a few folks with far more intellectual potential than I who are now in deadend jobs or worse and I know some folks whose IQ is most definately below the 130 average of the typical university professor type who are very successful in academics. Part of the whole deal is what you do with that potential.
One interesting bit . . . that I certainly never thought about . . . and it really sinks in . . . half the folks you meet driving cars out there in the streets have an IQ below average. In fact, a number of them - one in twenty - are severly below average.
Interesting essay.
I forget the reference . . . and I'm too lazy to look it up (more squandering that potential, I guess) but you're welcome to look it up . . . there was a study of male Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize Winners and other top achievers and they found that most of them made their significant contributions to society and science before they got married and had kids. Men are compelled to achieve in part as a means of attracting potential mates . . . we do whatever we do best as a way to attract hot babes and the like . . . once we marry and settle down with kids then we have fulfilled that part of our imperative to procreate so to speak and so our priorities change from needing to succeed and be innovative and burn the midnight oil to attract mates. We change so that our priorities are to enjoy the family we've built. Obviously, this is not true of all successful men . . . some folks are just screwed up and have dysfunctional family relationships.
Joseph Campbell, one of my personal favorite thinkers, once said that "when the child is born, the parents become as if they are dead . . . for the rest of their lives are spent nurturing that new life." That's one of my favorite lines from Campbell. I know, some folks read it and think of zombie parents or undead ghouls trapped into living for their children instead of themselves but I really believe they miss the whole point of parenthood. It's not an involuntary servitude for your child, it's a natural transition. Since we had our child, every major decision we have made in our lives - housing, job, car, whatever - has been based upon whether or not we thought it was best for our child. Where we live is because it's close to our daughter's school (my work too but it was her needs that clinched the deal). We don't begrudge our child, we live for her because we want to, we love her, it is as natural as breathing. Sure, we still have our own needs and desires - we are alive, we're not dead lifeless blobs - but the major stuff is all tempered by our desire to ensure her well being . . . and that's how it should be. People who continue living their own little self-interested lives after marriage or childbirth have no business having kids in the first place . . . they don't really have a family, they have offspring and that's about it.
Congratulations, Brian David!
Your IQ score is 136
This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.
Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns.
I think I need to take it again. It's been so long that I've taken something like that so I'm a bit rusty. Well, it could have been a lot worse, I suppose. The results could have been a lot more humiliating. The Classic IQ Test
This site is definately not work safe. Shokushu High School is one of the many hentai sites out there with graphic stories and images depicting Japanese high school girls being sexually abused by giant monster tentacles. Now, here's the interesting part . . . as you navigate through the school there are classrooms with lectures . . . one of the English lectures is actually a pretty good introduction to short story writing well worth a perusal - assuming you can concentrate on the text rather than the lurid images.
New paths in education? Reminds me of the Hong Kong entreprenuer who wanted to expand the Naked News idea to include classroom lectures on various topics for an educational approach to adult entertainment or an entertaining approach to education, I forget which.
At first glance, institutions of higher learning seem to be hypocritical when they recruit the resume-building grade-snarfing uber-genius into their ranks only to tell the kids to slow down once they reach university. However, this little tangled web is not quite as clear cut as it is being portrayed.
It is a reality of life that folks must excell to do well. That's part of what being excellent is about . . . and part of excelling is pushing yourself to your limits. The trick is to learn how to maintain that degree of excellence without burning yourself out. Students shouldn't be told simply to "cool it" as it is characterized rather than the traditional "work your ass off buddy" mentality.
No, instead, students should be taught to "study well" instead of "study hard" rather than the "study less" idea that the "cool it" trend seems to foster.
You should never work hard, but you should work well. Students need to understand that if they want to excell, they should enjoy education and in getting the work done . . . but that the process can be done in an enjoyable way. It's not so much "taking it easy" in and of itself but "taking it well."
Part of this process is learning to model methods, techniques, or processes used by others that allow them to be effective decision makers and efficient workers. Learning really shouldn't be a choice between banging your head against the wall until the advanced calc notes somehow seep through the hardened carapace or skipping out on notes and studies and just taking a break while learning nothing.
Learning should be about finding a way to approach problems effectively and to solve them creatively while enjoying the process of gaining knowledge and insight. To do that, you really need to learn how to study well rather than study hard. Part of this process is also coming to the realization that university isn't just about the books, but about the life and how you enjoy it. We need to learn to prioritize our goals and enjoying ourselves should be an important goal (not the overwhelming hedonistic imperative of the sybarite to the exclusion of all else but certainly important).
Scott Sommers has some interesting thoughts about the over-reliance on the Social Science Citation Index in Taiwanese academia.
For the most part, he has some very very valid points.
However, the ranking he mentioned by way of example did not actually put National Chengchi University at the bottom of the list . . . we were only listed halfway there . . . there were plenty of schools that scored much lower than us. :-) In fact, a number of good schools, such as the National Academy of the Arts, scored zero points as none of the arts journals faculty there publish in were even listed.
Also . . . that was not a complete survey. The Ministry of Education released partial results in part in an effort to humiliate the university as part of an on-going dispute over land rights. The MOE was forced to apologize for the misleading press.
However . . . Scott's other points about over-reliance on one indexing system are very well taken.
For schools where a great deal of work in the humanites takes place, the Social Sciene Citation Index is not quite as relevant as some folks who seek to quantify academics would like to believe.
Of course, you don't have to publish in SSCI journals, one can get a promotion without them . . . but it certainly does help your evaluations and strengthens your promotion package. For the NCCU evaluation/promotion regulations, folks receive extra points for SSCI journals. In order to qualify to seek promotion, you need a certain number of points for academic publications - the minimum requirement varies according to rank - with a peer-reviewed journal counting for twenty points (with bonus points if it's SSCI). Conference papers now count for so little that it is fast becoming a great waste of time to present at them - particularly since such work is felt to distract one from working on the money-shot journal publications. In my opinion, this is unfortunate as conferences are a wonderful way to build a community of scholars.
In reference to Scott's posting, P. Kerim Friedman at Keywords has even more to say about the evolution of scholarly publishing and notes that things are changing so quickly that the SSCI is very much the wrong tool to judge scholarship. The SSCI is outdated, outmoded, and just plain difficult to use.
While you can find a system for submitting electronic journals to the SSCI for evaluation and possible inclusion in the index, the system is still too slow and unwieldy, omitting several growing influences on scholarly exchange.
A group of Teachers in Germany were Treated in Hospital after Eating Doped Cake. Evidently someone left a cake by the staff room and the teachers ate it. The cake had been laced with hashish and so the teachers got rather high. They thought they had food poisoning but the doctors at the hospital recognized their symptoms as drug use. Tests on the cake confirmed they'd been doped.
I suppose they will be a bit more careful about eating anonymous cakes.
We have a refrigerator in our staff room where folks leave treats and the like or their lunches. A few years a go, one of the teachers would eat whatever was in there if it didn't have a label . . . I can imagine the results would be pretty similar if someone left an ecstacy or marijuana cake there . . . albeit the consiquences would be a lot heavier as drugs are very much on the illegal side here with stiff jail terms and very very extreme punishment for dealers or pushers.
The votes point is a good one. That's pretty much how most public policy is created. It's unfortunate that sometimes dumbass decisions get made to please voters who don't know all the issues . . . welcome to the circus maximus. The kindergarten issue is partly about voting costituencies. The local teachers feel their jobs are being threatened and so they pushed against English education - just as they feel their jobs are being threatened so they they are pushing against connecting kindergartens to elementary schools. There are plans to require that all kindergarten teachers be certified educators and it is likely that they kindergartens will lobby against those as well. In the end, the controversy has little to do with language education and everything to do with protecting one's turf to safeguard existing jobs.
It's not really the same as the Taiwanese issue. The DPP pushed for Taiwanese classes as many of the children are already speakers of the language and it is already a native language for a large number of children entering schools. English is a foreign language.
The controversy is in a great part based upon jobs . . . actually, a major part.
It has always been illegal for kindergartens to offer language classes taught by foreigners in that it's been illegal for foreigners to be hired as teachers for kindergartens (regardless of subject being taught). It was just that recently the MOE opened a loophole that allowed certain type of language schools to provied teachers and classes to kindergartens. However, many of the private kindergartens took advantage of the loophole to create the so-called English environment schools which are directly competing with the Chinese environment schools with the foreign teachers perceived as a threat the locals' job security. Local Chinese kindergarten teachers find themselves in a much more competitive environment and many are afraid of losing their jobs. The union stepped in and began putting pressure on the government. Once they found some conservative academics to back their case with the rather erronneous assumption that learning a foreign language early will confuse children in regard to their native language ability, they went whole hog and pushed harder. Of course, the conclusions about early language acquisition are wrong. There is some degree of cross-noise but this is for the most part temporary and part of a natural learning process. Those arguing against early bilingual education are confusing cross-talk effects with confusion, this is not the case. Children tend to have more benefits from early exposure to languages rather than late exposure. Albeit, while some of the kindergarten language schools are certainly doing a wonderful job, others are just a bunch of kids being pushed to memorize useless vocabularly in no wholistic pattern. In my opinion, the problem isn't the subject, it is the methodology.
Gee, I wonder if I should ask the English Department where I teach to sign up for this program . . . perhaps Taiwanese university students might benefit from some real American Accent Training . . . what do you think?
Recently, I've received a couple queries via email from folks who are in Taiwan but not associated with academic institutions. They wonder where they can find Teaching English as a Foreign Language resources and announcements for conferences or the like.
Go to the Hwakang Journal yahoogroup at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HwakangJournal/ - the name implies that the group is for discussion of the journal for the Chinese Culture University but this is a misnomer, there is another list for that. This is actually a general EFL discussion list.
Most of the folks on the list are associated with universities or other academic institutions but not all . . . many are working as tutors or as instructors for bushibans (language cram schools).
If you want to see the group's archives of past posts you will need a yahoo ID but you don't need one to subscribe. It's well worth your time.
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