WWW www.habermas.org

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: December 19, 2004
Latest Update: December 23, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

Time to Rest and Gather Our Wits
To Keep Our Voices Clear

I was trying to find a way to send you all a card that would say Happy Holidays to every faith and belief system. It's time to finish up the learning records, so I don't get to spend much time on it. But this is my first effort. You might try building on it. Maybe your ideas will meld our issues more effectively.

Anyway, this is the first issue of the Winter Break. Hopefully you will find some quiet time to rest and to read, to ponder, and to find peace. The website and transform_dom will continue to reflect our concern with ever so many social issues. There is so much going on in the world just now that I can't imagine being completely away from our discourse community.

This morning I read Stephan Said's Iraq: A Silenced Majority - From Interviews with My Family Sunday 19 December 2004. He speaks of the extensive use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq now. We have no idea what the permanent effects of such weaponry are. We have no idea how it affects the soldiers who are using them. Those soldiers are not given the option of saying "I will not use depleted uranium weapons against other humans." Who, then, is accountable?

Take a break. Rest. But, remember, there is much for which we need to take responsibility, and sooner rather than later. jeanne

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

The First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry will take place at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from May 5-7, 2005. "Due to the growing interest in new conference panels and increasing volume of requests for submission deadline extension, the deadline for submissions of open-panel session proposals and all papers to the First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry is now extended to January 15, 2005." Suggested conference topics are suggested. I would like to go, but don't know if I'll have the time. jeanne

Learning Records: Grades online on ToroWeb.

You may continue to correct or send materials that you would like included with your learning record. With 300 students I know I missed some messages and some activities that we should include. 9 students have already contacted me for corrections. I'll get those done as soon as school opens on January 3, 2004. When I listed a grade less than In A on the learning records, I also said "until you contact me with evidence of learning." When I gave an F, it was simply that I couldn't find any record of contact. Doesn't mean I don't have one. Just couldn't find it. jeanne

• 328cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Agencies Class.
  
• 367cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Sociology of Law Class.
  
• 370cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Moot Court Class.
  
• 395cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Women and Poverty Class.
  
• 595cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Grad. Women and Poverty Class.

• Home Page for transform-dom You can read all the messages on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up.

• Home Page for transspan You can read all the messages in spanish on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up. And you're welcome to put up messages for friends, relatives, community messages, who want to join the discussion but are not used to the computer. You can print the responses for them later. Make technology work for freedom and democracy

• Home Page for Obesity Support

• Instructions page for joining transform_dom and transspan
• Link for joining tranform_dom:

  
  Click to join transform_dom

Ideas for the Spring 2005 Naked Space Exhibit:

• Life Space and The Front Porch Art Crawl
  
  

  • The Front Porch Art Crawl Here is an example in which our Naked Space Exhibit takes on some of the same concern for an academy-community bridge as a Learning Center in St.Paul, Minnesota. This project will revolve around contacting them, adapting as much as we can from their project, and sharing our project with them.
  • On Tuesday and Thrusday of this week, I'm going to ask you to map out your own life space with concerns that you are feeling with dominant discourse. We'll work together, make suggestions to each other, and I'll try to shape the site around those concerns in the coming months. We can share your life space drawings over transform_dom.

  • Archaeological Collage

Jeanne's Lectures During Winter Break, 2004

• Fall 2004 Lectures in Chronological Order
• Components for Interim Report for Fall 2004 Naked Space Exhibit on Transforming Dominant Discourse

• Mobile Phone Radiation Harms DNA, New Study Finds From the Anti-Aging Newsletter of the Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine "Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the European Union, researchers said on Monday. . . . The so-called Reflex study, conducted by 12 research groups in seven European countries, did not prove that mobile phones are a risk to health but concluded that more research is needed to see if effects can also be found outside a lab. . . . Adlkofer advised against the use of a mobile phone when an alternative fixed line phone was available, and recommended the use of a headset connected to a cellphone whenever possible. . . . 'We don't want to create a panic, but it is good to take precautions,' he said, adding that additional research could take another four or five years." This link came from an email that I assume we receive because of the content of our website. Because cell phones are so convenient for many of us, we fail to consider that science knows little of the consequences of such radical change in the long term exposure of our bodies to new forces, such as radiation. Try moderation. And remain aware to what science is learning. jeanne

• Campaign for America's Future Left perspective, with left being urged to come together over social issues, the stuff that got left out in the campaign. See especially Revitalizing Education.

• Student Response to Campus Problems Part of Interim Report.

• The Use of Depleted Uranium by the U.S. in Iraq I was too astounded to go into discussion questions. I'll just settle for our knowing about it. Lots of resources included with lecture. Meanwhile, the inspiration for all this was Iraq: A Silenced Majority - From Interviews with My Family Sunday 19 December 2004. On Truthout.

• Frontiers of Freedom A conservative website that may provide you with information on the social issues jeanne and Susan and Pat tend to see from the left. Founder: Senator Malcolm Wallop: Biography. Republican - Wyoming, Retired.

• Putting U.S. mercury emissions in perspective: Costly reductions offer no measurable benefits to health or environment Thursday, May 20, 2004. Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: CFACT. Right or corporate perspective.

• Muslim Public Affairs Council Left perspective in protecting against discrimination on visual stigma. jeanne received this morning an e-mail entitled: FYI: MPAC SUPPORT'S OF AMERICAN EFFORTS AGAINST TERRORISM from Rachel Neuwirth, an L.A. journalist, who writes for the Conservative Voice. That means access to right perspective on these issues. NOW, IT'S MY TURN, SALAM! By Rachel Neuwirth. December 15, 2004. This will certainly be a useful resource for our discussions on religion next semester. jeanne

Academic Support

• A Range of Sources on Global Events

  Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
  Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
  Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation - BBC NEWS | Americas
  Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - La Opinion - The Washington Post
  Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor - Palestine Report

  Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile - KPFK Progressive Radio
  Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group

• Mentoring

  • Mentoring Help for New Students with Frequently Asked Questions
    
  • Mentoring Help for Returning Students with More Frequently Asked Questions
    
  • Shared Reading Suggestions

    Preparing for Graduate Study:

  • Test Prep Preview Joshua L. Stewart, recommended this site because it has free practice tests. If you're thinking of taking the GRE, the LAST, or any other graduate entry test, this might be a good place to gather some early information. Joshua suggested it for Praxis Practice, but a quick first look suggests they don't mean by praxis what we do. Check it out, anyway, if you have some spare time. jeanne

• Resource Literacy

  • Plagiarism Watch www.streetgangs.com site. The intelligent and effective use of resources means that you have to be careful not to plagiarize other people's material. We have several files on plagiarism, but I think the one that might make the most sense to you is this complaint on streetgangs.com. They give you samples of sites that have taken their material without citation, even at colleges, and they also give you examples of sites that have used their material with proper attribution. I find the irony poetic, and hope that their message will get through to you the importance of attribution. Dr. O'Connor on his Mega Criminal Justice site led me to streetgangs.com and noted that others frequently hack into the site. For that reason I have created a backup copy for your use in case you cannot access the actual site. Please be sure to attribute any citation to streetgangs.com. jeanne Backup.

    Shared Reading Suggestions, many with templates already filled in.

Using Academic Language Effectively

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

and Careers

• Resumes:

  • College Journal Resume Suggestions . . . Backup

• Letters of Recommendation:

  • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
  • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

Play:

• Up soon.

Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:

Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:

• Who To Take at Cal State Dominguez Hills
• Who To Take - Colleges in General

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