Unused Material

Equivocation Fallacy

In a conversation, the meanings of words matter. Words can mean different things and words can be used in multiple ways. To have a good conversation, it is a good idea to discuss the meanings of key words and agree to their meanings before moving on.

If you want to use a word with multiple meanings, you have to pick one meaning and stick with it for the duration.

  • Because it's called the theory of evolution, evolution is an unproven assumption.

If a word can be used literally and figuratively, you have to pick one or the other for the duration.

  • I'm done drinking coffee for good. From now on I'm drinking coffee for evil.

If there is more than one interpretation to a claim, a premise, or a conclusion, you must be clear which interpretation is meant.

  • Hey man, where are you going?

  • Sorry dude, I have to go feed my baby turtles.

  • Aww cute, can I watch?

  • Comic: http://explosm.net/comics/1206/ - Cyanide and Happiness - March 15, 2008

A good scientist works to make sure that all of their statements are as clear and as unequivocated as possible. Many good potential discussions are derailed with the time spent figuring out what people mean.

Untrue things we think are true


You are being lied to all the time

  • Vitamin D is not a vitamin, it's a hormone.

  • Strawberries and raspberries aren't berries. Berries have their seeds on the inside.

  • Peanuts aren't nuts. They're legumes.

  • Jurassic Park had a Tyrannosaurs rex, but that dinosaur did not exist in the Jurassic period. They're from the late Cretaceous. Tens of millions of years off.



Things I'm sure about

  • "I don’t know" is awesome.

  • Dichotomies usually aren’t.

  • The only wrong answer is one with no evidence.

  • Better answers are better explained and have better evidence.

  • The best answer for now is temporary because of what may be discovered in the future.

  • Complete certainty is only available for the simplest facts.

  • Ignoring a problem is like letting it level up before facing you.


Truth can feel like lies or be uncomfortable

  • I am closer to being a millionaire than Bill Gates.

  • I have the same amount of gold medals as most people who went to the Olympics.

  • The average human has slightly less than one testicle.

  • We have all at one point kicked a pregnant lady.

  • All of the tough guys you see on TV and in movies were probably theater majors in college.

  • When you are a kid, you are also watching your mom and dad grow up.

  • Spoons are little bowls we put into big bowls.

  • You can do everything right in life and still lose.

  • Average person produces three pints of fart air a day and releases it in an average of 10-15 bursts during that day.

  • The California grizzly bear is extinct. You know, the one on the flag of California.


Power Balance Bracelets

Kinoki Detox Foot Pad


“You have your way, I have my way, as for the right way, correct way, and the only way, it doesn’t exist.” - Nietzsche He didn't say that


https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/06/amazon-reviews-thousands-are-fake-heres-how-to-spot-them.html

https://digg.com/video/why-misinformation-is-so-irresistible-to-us


You can choose to be 100% smarter, 100% stronger, 100% faster or 100% more attractive. Which one do you choose and why?

Allegory of the Cave

https://www.spyfu.com/blog/google-search-operators/

https://innobatics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Cantril-Ladder-english-i.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_pRsxGplEg&feature=emb_logo

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/new-york-times-tweet-passive-voice/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxYrzzy3cq8

https://old.reddit.com/r/2020PoliceBrutality/comments/hy2y8i/the_curious_grammar_of_police_shootings_when/

POV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant



Is lava wet?

Is the ocean soup?


Property based definition to equivocation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg


Observable - Testable - Repeatable

Burden of Proof

Verifyability is hard.

Falsifiability is easier. Falsifiable/Refutable

Aliens don't exist.

You Can't Prove a Negative

Russel's Teapot - A person making a nonfalsifiable claim has the burden of proof. It is not the job of others to disprove an unprovable thing.

Bertrand Russel - He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong.


"Innocent Until Proven Guilty" is Scientific


Prejudice is bad.

Stereotyping is dangerous.

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/black-team-beats-klan/?fbclid=IwAR26l8omWvqUyamLw2rjEkcvoQiteT6kGCbrNPzaxvB0UDOR1C26PxXH680

https://cdnph.upi.com/sv/ph/og/upi/57091339432948/2012/1/b52e0d264fb82f5927c168c8601fd045/v2.1/KKK-files-Adopt-A-Highway-request-in-Ga.jpg


Evolutionary Mismatch

  • Carbohydrates

  • Sitting

  • Shoes

  • Eyes unable to see at distance (myopia).

  • Backs with two curves that have weak points. "Slipped" and Herniated discs are possible.

Office Speak


http://www.andrewdavidson.com/gibberish/?companyname=XYZ+Industries

https://goodcalculators.com/flesch-kincaid-calculator/


Video: James Randi Speaks: The Compass Trick - April 28, 2009

Testing Psychic Powers

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/magazine/psychics-skeptics-facebook.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faBIIFA5wng

Video: Homeopathy, quackery and fraud | James Randi - TED - Apr 20, 2010


Face on Mars

Viking 1976

2001 Mars Global Survey

We are programmed by evolution to see faces. Our unconscious mind does things without training.

      • Anything visually close to eyes and faces will be reacted to quickly and without thought.

      • We are wired to react to unexpected sounds.

      • Flinching is good and is nothing more than an unconscious process to avoid being attacked.


We don't synthesize ascorbic acid for ourselves, cats and dogs don't get scurvy. Primates have this problem.



Dancing makes it rain


With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim. The 10 Questions: 1. How reliable is the source of the claim? 2.Does the source make similar claims? 3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else? 4. Does this fit with the way the world works? 5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim? 6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point? 7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science? 8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence? 9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory? 10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/car-door-sound-engineering

https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-fuqua-insights/ashleigh-rosette-research-suggests-bias-against-natural-hair-limits-job

No True Scotsman/Moving the Goalposts

Performance Tasks could benefit from Breaking Down the Prompt, bring that back from 10th grade.

Be coachable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

Point of View and Knowledge

NDT

"My impact would be, people learn from me in a way that they are empowered by what I taught them. So that when they think of what they learned from me, they no longer think of me. They think of their own base of understanding of how this world works and so that I become irrelevant. Because if people say this is true because "Tyson said so.", then I've failed. That's not how you teach someone. That's teaching by authority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtahB1-MNvk

"Be ashamed to die until you have scored some victory for humanity."

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ― Henry Thomas Buckle

Science is all about getting better knowledge while getting better methods and tools to getting even better knowledge.

Robert Jordan New London, Connecticut

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/too-smart-to-be-a-cop/

http://www.aele.org/apa/jordan-newlondon.html

In the fall of 1996, Jordan learned that the city of New London was interviewing candidates. Upon further inquiry, however, he learned from assistant city manager Keith Harrigan that he would not be interviewed because he �didn�t fit the profile.� Plaintiff, who was 46 years old, suspected age discrimination and filed an administrative complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. The city responded that it removed Jordan from consideration because he scored a 33 on the WPT, and that to prevent frequent job turnover caused by hiring overqualified applicants the city only interviewed candidates who scored between 20 and 27.

Plaintiff brought a civil rights action in the District Court for the District of Connecticut (Dorsey, Judge) alleging that the city and Harrigan denied him equal protection in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article 4, Section 20, of the Connecticut Constitution. On August 29, 1999, the district court granted defendants� motion for summary judgment, finding no suspect classification and that defendants had �shown . . . a rational basis� for the policy. We agree that New London�s use of an �upper cut� did not violate the equal protection clause and affirm the judgment of the district court.

Q1: Coming of Age and the Moments that Define Us

Upgrades: Liminality/Rites of Passage/Failure as a Teachable Moment

Upgrades: Conversational Empathy in Action, Active Listening. Verbal Follow Along Triggers, Active Notes, Permission Requesting, Giving Thanks Before and After, Scheduling Time

Q2: Empathy and Of Mice and Men

Empathy Analysis in Literature

Marigolds and Defining Experiences

    • Short Story: Marigolds (1969) by Eugenia Collier

        • 120 Conflict - Marigolds

        • 122 Defining Experiences - Marigolds

Designing Judgment Criteria

  • Moral - Is it good or bad for you individually?

  • Ethical - Is it good or bad for the group?

  • Legal - Is it good or bad according to the law?

  • Logical - Is it good or bad logically?

  • Pathos - Is it good or bad emotionally?

  • Ethos - Is it good or bad according to my individual, group, or cultural values?

  • Economic - Is it good or bad financially?

  • Environmental - Is it good or bad for the ecosystem?

  • Opportunity Cost - Which choice benefits your more?

  • Risks - Is it good or bad according to statistical probability?

  • Political -

  • Physical -

  • Mental -

  • Spiritual?

  • Mural Contest - Singing Contest - Poetry Contest - Dance Contest

Some News Is Actually Run by Political and Foreign Agents

Journalism is Who What When Where Why and How with just facts. To extend that foundation and create relevant commentary, use these questions:

  • Who

    • Who benefits from this?

    • Who is this harmful to?

    • Who makes decisions about this?

    • Who is most directly affected?

    • Who have you heard also discuss this?

    • Who would be the best person to consult?

    • Who are the key people in this?

    • Who deserves recognition for this?

  • What

    • What are the strengths and weaknesses?

    • What other perspectives are there on this issue?

    • What alternatives are available?

    • What counter-arguments are there?

    • What is the best-case and worst-case scenario?

    • What is the most and the least important information?

    • What can we do to make a positive change?

    • What is getting in the way of completing the action?

  • When

    • When would this be acceptable or unacceptable?

    • When would this benefit society?

    • When would this cause problems?

    • When is the best time to take action?

    • When will we know if it has been successful?

    • When has this played a part in history?

    • When can we expect this to change?

    • When should we ask for help with this?

  • Where

    • Where would we see this in the real world?

    • Where are people going through similar situations?

    • Where is there the most need for this?

    • Where in the world would this be a problem?

    • Where can we get more information?

    • Where do we go for help with this?

    • Where will this idea take us?

    • Where are the areas for improvement?

  • Why

    • Why is this a problem or challenging?

    • Why is it relevant to me and other people?

    • Why is this solution the best possible solution?

    • Why are people influenced by this?

    • Why should people know about this?

    • Why has it been this way for so long?

    • Why have people allowed this to happen?

    • Why is there a need for this today?

  • How

    • How is this similar to ___________?

    • How does this disrupt things?

    • How do we know the truth about this?

    • How will we approach this topic safely?

    • How does this benefit us and others?

    • How does this harm us and others?

    • How do we see this in the future?

    • How can we change this for good?

Interview Narrative


Bonus Video: How to Shoot an Interview | Job Shadow - Parker Walbeck - May 25, 2018


  • 124 Learning How to Interview

  • 125 Planning an Interview

  • 126 Interview Narrative - Checklist & Scoring Guide

  • 127 Evaluating Narratives

  • 128 Interview Narrative - Checklist & Scoring Guide

  • 129 Interview Narrative - Peer Editing

  • 108 Unpacking the Assessment

  • 109 Talking About Voice

  • 110 Narrative Voices - Speak

  • 113 Parallel Structure Exercise

  • 120 Conflict - Marigolds

  • 122 Defining Experiences - Marigolds

  • 124 Learning How to Interview

  • 125 Planning an Interview

  • 126 Interview Narrative - Checklist & Scoring Guide

  • 127 Evaluating Narratives

  • 128 Interview Narrative - Checklist & Scoring Guide

  • 129 Interview Narrative - Peer Editing

  • 130 Coming of Age Book Report

  • 202 Blast_ Empathy

  • 203 Empathy_ Academic Conversation

  • 204 Possessives

  • 206 The Apostrophe

  • 210 Capitalization of Proper Nouns

  • 213 Harvest Gypsies

  • 215 Italics

  • 216 Harvest Gypsies Vocabulary Review

  • 217 Harvest Gypsies - Claim and Evidence

  • 219 Of Mice and Men Chapter 1

  • 222 Of Mice and Men Ch 1 Vocabulary Practice - Word Families

  • 225 Of Mice and Men Reading Journal

  • 227 Of Mice and Men - Characters

  • 301 Quick-Write - Career Research

  • Website: Word Clouds - ABCYA