April 25, 2010: 10:23 pm: jonthonDay-to-Day
Archive for April, 2010
From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste
From Dung to Coffee Brew With No Aftertaste – NYTimes.com.
The Civet, an animal most commonly found in Indonesia and the Philippines, shits gold. That is to say, it selects coffee cherries, eats them, digests them, and then defecates, and some people collect its droppings and sell the beans for $227/lb. That seems kind of ridiculous to me..!
: 6:42 pm: jonthonDay-to-Day
DOB Shuts Down Harlem Hostel; Dozens Stranded
DOB Shuts Down Harlem Hostel; Dozens Stranded – NY1.com.
I’m frankly amazed. To do this in the wake of Eyjafjallajokull is nonsense, especially since this hostel, which is right around the corner from my apartment, seems pretty damn legitimate!
Fulbright ETA survey responded
If you attended a Fulbright ETA Pre-Departure Orientation in Washington, DC, please list 2-3 strengths of that orientation. What 2-3 things could have been done better? If you did NOT attend a Fulbright Pre-Departure ETA Orientation in Washington, DC, do you think you would have benefitted from attending one? If yes, how? Based on your experience on your grant, list 2-3 things you would like a pre-departure orientation to cover or include.
I did not attend a Pre-Departure ETA Orientation in Washington, DC. I would have benefited from attending one in that I could have met ETAs heading to other countries, and had a closer connection to the Fulbright community. Having recently hosted a Fulbright Enrichment Seminar here in new York City, I realize how meaningful it can be to meet 140 brilliant people, even if only for three days. The ubiquity of Facebook means that some of these bonds will be lasting, and that the Fulbright network will grow denser.
If you attended an in-country Fulbright ETA Orientation when you arrived in your host country, please list 2-3 strengths of that orientation. What 2-3 things could have been done better? If you did NOT attend an in-country Fulbright ETA orientation, do you think you would have benefitted from one? If yes, how? Based on your experience on your grant, list 2-3 things you would like an in-country orientation to cover or include.
I attended a Fulbright ETA Orientation in Indonesia. It was vital to my success in the country.
Top Three Strengths:
1. The “Survival Indonesian” class ramped up our fluency quickly, so that we were capable of going out into the country and learning more on our own.
2. The facilities we stayed in for nearly a month, Novotel, allowed us a home base in which to live and attend classes, so we did not get disoriented and could focus on our orientation. When we got sick (which happened to all of us, inevitably), we had ready access to western plumbing and lavatories. (Aminef wisely insisted that our housing have western plumbing, which ensured that we all did – and in my case particularly, it meant that a house was constructed just for me..!)
3. The presence of ETAs who been allowed to renew their grant allowed for knowledge capital to be transferred through another channel – and one that was very significant: individuals who had our job the year before us. (Unfortunately, Aminef discontinued this practice the year afterward.)
Three Things that could have been done better:
1. There could have been more renewal grantees.
2. It could have been a few days shorter – things started to drag at the end of week three.
3. The class sessions on teaching could have had a more active focus on lesson planning, so that ETAs walked away with lesson plans they made and that their friends made, and which could be used in the classroom.
Aside from the in-country and/or pre-departure Fulbright ETA orientations, what other resources (websites, books, in-country teachers/contacts, etc.) did you use to prepare for your Fulbright ETA assignment?
Vicky Riback-Wilson, Director – Office of Service Learning, University of Missouri-Columbia
former state representative
former Peace Corps Volunteer
wilsonvr@missouri.edu
While on your Fulbright ETA grant, how was your role divided (classroom teaching, designing/delivering after class activities, advising, etc.)? Was this clearly defined at the beginning or did your role change over time?
I taught 4 classes at two levels every week, for a total of 8 classes in the course of 4 days. (I did not teach on Fridays because they are half-days in Indonesian to allow for Friday prayer.)
I planned and prepared for all of the content I taught.
I created an Honors Club, and later co-created an English Language Club that was open to the general community.
My role was not clearly defined – I defined it.
Do you feel that you received adequate support from your host institution and/or the U.S. Embassy and/or Fulbright Commission while on your grant? Please explain.
Overall, I thought Aminef (the host institution) administered the Fulbright ETA program effectively and purposefully. The only nagging flaw was in the communications between the main office and ETAs, which was confusing at times. Most of these conversational/institutional breakdowns were initiated when ETAs requested permission to travel in-country. As Indonesia is a country of thousands of islands and hundreds of languages, it is imperative that ETAs travel (perhaps even with greater frequency than ETAs in other countries) to truly experience and gain understanding about the pluralism and multiplicity of Indonesian society.
What is one piece of advice you would like to give outgoing Fulbright ETAs heading to your host country? One piece of advice you’d give to ANY Fulbright ETA?
Organize your photos into stories that explain your country and post them on facebook, then make them into a Powerpoint slide you can show in friend’s classrooms and to groups of friends when you travel.
If you have any other comments about the Fulbright ETA orientations or the Fulbright ETA program in general, please share them here.
The Fulbright ETA program opened my mind and created a context in which I could further self-actualize. I am forever grateful.
A long while back, my roommates and I discussed whether it would be more important to learn calculus in high school, or statistics. I argued for the latter. My roommate Tim, however, argues for Calculus. He is, of course, taken Vector Calculus for fun right now.
A few days back, he sent me the article linked below. I’ve grabbed two pull quotes I found interesting:
On why calculus is so often taught devoid of any practical applicability:
Every field has its own version of a derivative. Whether it goes by “marginal return” or “growth rate” or “velocity” or “slope,” a derivative by any other name still smells as sweet. Unfortunately, many students seem to come away from calculus with a much narrower interpretation, regarding the derivative as synonymous with the slope of a curve.
On nature, which “somehow knows calculus:”
Snell’s law describes how light rays bend when they pass from air into water, as they do when shining into a swimming pool. Light moves more slowly in water, much like the hiker in the snow, and it bends accordingly to minimize its travel time. Similarly, light also bends when it travels from air into glass or plastic as it refracts through your eyeglass lenses.The eerie point is that light behaves as if it were considering all possible paths and automatically taking the best one. Nature — cue the theme from “The Twilight Zone” — somehow knows calculus.
via Change We Can Believe In – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com.
Crossing the Kcymaerxthaere – Eames Demetrios
I read this article in an American Airlines in-flight magazine, and actually love the idea of art installations as inter-dimensional portals. Thought provoking, if not silly.
“No one ever threw down Lord of the Rings after 100 pages saying it wasn’t true,” he says. “No one ever walked out of Star Wars after 20 minutes complaining it wasn’t a documentary. And yet, in the physical world, people are like, is this true or not?”
If it’s inspiring, it doesn’t matter.
