Be a post whore!

[Pico and ME]

Saw 38 perseid meteors tonight. It was pretty awesome, especially since I have never seen a 'shooting star' before tonight.

[footfootfoot]

Seriously? Never saw a shooting star?

They are cool. In Maine one summer I watched the Draconids (I'm pretty sure) I lost count.

What's your position on NorthernLights?

[Pico and ME]

Havent seen those yet either.

I went back out again to see Jupiter and Venus rise with the crescent moon and I saw 20 more meteors. A few of them were fireball types, with the thicker tails that last a little longer.

The night sky in Arizona is just amazing to me. Its just not something Im used to having grown up in suburban northwest Indiana (only 30 miles southeast of Chicago).

[ZenGum]

<-- envious.

Very poor conditions for viewing the Perseids down under this year. Sounds like you had a great view.

[Pico and ME]

Yeah, I think so...a lot of them were directly overhead, so most of the time, I was just lying down in the lawn chair looking up. And this was in my Mom's backyard.

[BigV]

I heard an interesting term on the radio today:

"spin-loaded question"

Made me think about asking neutral questions in an effort to get a higher quality answer (that is, one that has more objective content and less subjective/opinion/persuasion/insulting hostility) I realize there is a whole universe of good questions for which this is difficult or impossible or inappropriate.

[Griff]

Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning (indeed Socrates himself thought that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching). It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds in cultivating deep learning. Integrating Socratic questions this the following manner in the classroom help develop active, independent learners:[2][unreliable source?]

Getting students to clarify their thinking

e.g., ‘Why do you say that?’, ‘Could you explain further?’

Challenging students about assumptions

e.g., ‘Is this always the case?’, ‘Why do you think that this assumption holds here?’

Evidence as a basis for argument

e.g., ‘Why do you say that?’, ‘Is there reason to doubt this evidence?’

Alternative viewpoints and perspectives

e.g., ‘What is the counter argument for?’, ‘Can/did anyone see this another way?’

Implications and consequences

e.g., ‘But if...happened, what else would result?’, ‘How does...affect...?’

Question the question

e.g., ‘Why do you think that I asked that question?’, ‘Why was that question important?’, ‘Which of your questions turned out to be the most useful?’

Well, you could go old school.

[BigV]

I will return to Griff's post soon.

In the meantime, I've run *out* of gas for the lawnmower, and I'm perilously low on motivation. I still have plenty of sweat though. 85 degrees is plenty hot to be wrangling a mower through the high grass, catsears, rhododendrons, blackberry canes and english fucking ivy.

[Griff]

I've got a couple hundred pounds of stinking billy goat for your greenery.

[BigV]

ooohhhh baby... I *love it* when you talk like that!

I'm away from the location of my pictures documenting my latest deforestation ordeal. The companionship of stinking billy goats would never have smelled sweeter. Pics to follow.

Turns out I had no more motivation than I had gasoline. I have since replenished my reserves of both. Still have plenty of tall greenery to shorten.

[BigV]

re Socratic method:

I like this school. I think like this a lot of the time. I use this method with my kids to their everlasting frustration. (Parenting note, I'm perfectly content to use spin-saturated questions with them should the situation call for it. "Which do you want to do first, empty the dishwasher or empty the trash?").

The most cliche spin loaded question is the classic "So, have you stopped beating your wife yet?" It is stuff like this that masks real information gain during question and answer time. There are lots of different tools and techniques in play during our political season, this is just one. Being aware of it helps me determine the real quality of the reply. Consider the source--this works as much for the answerer as it does for the questioner.

[DanaC]

Read something that really got me.

Jason Manford is a British comedian and person off've the telly. During the closing ceremony of the olympics he commented on his facebook page on Gary Barlow and the Take That performance, basically saying what a guy and what a superstar for going through with the long-planned performance given that he and his wife lost their baby a couple of days before. She was stillborn.

Some of the comments people posted were horrible. So he tackled the whole thing in his blog.

Read it, it's brilliant. And very moving. He covers three comments in particular with the last being a suggestion that it wasn't like losing a child who'd lived after all. His response to this one is such a stunning piece of writing.

I managed to find a site that reposted it in its entirety:

http://youngturkrevolution.wordpress...d-gary-barlow/

The last couple of paragraphs made me tear up.

[Sundae]

I thought the last bit was a little mawkish. He's preaching to the converted there.
It was interesting to get his perspective though, and of course I agree with him, having been involved with some people who went through it.

On a completely different subject: when are my eBay recommendations three books with the word Trauma in the title?
I have not been drunk-eBaying, or even drink-browsing. And I would certainly remember if trauma of any kind featured in my searches. I wonder if it's because I was looking for a paper copy of a wonderfully funny and inspiring book on autism. Which does not feature the word trauma. Or 9/11. Or whatever the other one was. Hmmmmm.

[Sundae]

26 degrees here and no sunshine.
I seem to be running a sweat farm in my hair, and it's harvest time.

My screensaver is Kelvingrove Park in the snow.
It's not helping.

[infinite monkey]

Microsoft Office thinks I'm Portuguese and Google thinks I'm Filipino.

I don't know why.