Should journalists have a licensing examination?

Communications is arguably one of the easiest majors at university. Currently in the United States, virtually anyone can become a journalist (while most major at a university in journalism, mass communications, or English). There is no licensing as there are with most other professionals (and those without licensing tacitly favor PhD's). Let's try to imagine how journalism would be different if such licensing existed.

Jonas Salk

I was aware of his work with polio (per med school and college and high school) and then was reminded of him in Michael Moore's Capitalism, but did not know anything of his philosophy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk

I would recommend reading this article in its entirety before discussion, at which point I'll try to find a book which covers him.

Rosh was wrong about the gays!?

Utah scientists hard at work:
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/sciencentral/696-reversing-sexual-orientation-video.htm

We know from embryology that we all start out as women (see SRY gene for more details) so the line between heterosexuality and homosexuality is fuzzy from the beginning. Also recall Ron White's standup where he says he prefers porno where the guy has a big throbbing $#%@ instead of a small one. There's a bit of woman in each man and probably a bit of man in each woman.

Rosh's argument was that homosexuality is a choice. It almost certainly isn't a (conscious) choice. What's interesting here is that even if it's largely genetic, it may be changeable through gene manipulation. And then this becomes an ethical question: would we want to change the genetics of babies before they are born (which would actually be the mother/father) to favor heterosexuality? Let's discuss this aspect of the nematode experiment.



Also, what's up with that scientist's hair? I didn't think that sort of hair was allowed in Utah.




Note: Labeled under human science even though experiment was carried out on pseudocoelomates.

Culture of Corruption

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113816661&ft=1&f=3

connect to this book

http://www.lucifereffect.com/

by zimbardo aka the guy who conducted the stanford prison study

Muslims on Capital Hill: scare tactics?

Fox News Special Report: "Four House Republicans on Wednesday accused the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group of trying to "infiltrate" Capitol Hill by placing interns in the offices of lawmakers who handle national security issues.

The four lawmakers, members of the anti-terror caucus, asked for an investigation into the Council on American Islamic Relations after discovering an internal memo noting the group's strategy."

This seem ridiculous to me. First, it sounds like the CAIR is becoming just like anyother organization trying to lobby congress to pass bills fit to their needs. So, if congress wants to stop them, then stop all lobbying. Second, the way this is presented poses CAIR as a terrorist group and fails to mention the Christian groups that have sought to infiltrate congress in the same manner. If correct, Jerry Falwells college and law school specifically trains Christians to become leaders and politicians to push the Christian agenda.

Should this draw the same concerns?

Source:
1) Fox News Article
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/14/gop-lawmakers-accuse-muslim-advocacy-group-planting-spies-capitol-hill/

2) Info on Falwell Law School
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4632072

The Banks, Geithner, and the President

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113803587&ft=1&f=2

Matt Apuzzo breaking some potentially revealing news. The piece is 4:06 long. We'll have to keep an eye on this guy.

Jazz, what's so good about it?

I'm going to the Dakota tonight (it's a jazz club downtown).

I have never understood music.

As far as I could ever tell, people were in love with the idea of being a rockstar as much as they were the music itself. The 80's were more honest about this (kind of) by focusing on the beat and making the tunes very catchy, at least that's how I've seen it and I could be wrong. It does not help that I can never actually understand the lyrics to a song whether it's Hip to Be Square or something more recent like [insert Dave Matthews song title]. When I look up the lyrics online, the themes are almost always sophomoric at best - most songs seem to be about love or other emotions. Jazz is supposed to be different (the image coming to mind is the mercenary in Collateral played by Tom Cruise who despite his criminality I considered a very thoughtful character of meticulous-nature). I found this article in "WikiHow":

http://www.wikihow.com/Appreciate-Jazz-Music

1. "Start where jazz history started, Ragtime. Listen to Scott Joplin, the Entertainer especially, then the Maple Leaf Rag, these are extreme favorites. try moving to these. You might develop a love specifically for ragtime!
2. Now, try listening to the swing. You can dance to these easily. Possible favorites can be "Hit the road jack" by Ray Charles. You will love this one! Otherwise try listening to this upbeat instrumental called In the Mood by the Glenn Miller
3. At night to cool down, listen to Cool Jazz. Artists such as Chet Baker in songs such as "Someday my prince will come" and artists such as Gil Evans and Stan Getz are also quite good. This is also a distinct style. If this doesn't please your tastes, try be-bop.
4. Many people love be-bop. try listening to Dizzy Gillespie. he is quite good, with a lot of energy in his songs. Charlie Parker and him played together once.
5. Try listening to the blues, this will get you used to the soul and heart put into some jazz songs. Try Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Sir Charles Jones, Bettye LaVette, and Peggy Scott-Adams. Try to learn the lyrics so you can sing along. You don't have to buy the CDs listen to them on youtube, or buy it from iTunes, but sample it first!
6. Figure out what you listened to before, and try to find a genre of jazz that you may like off of that. If you enjoyed, say, New Age, try listening to artists like Keith Jarrett, or if you listened to rock, try out Fusion. Later forms of jazz started shaping around mainstream popularity, so there is a genre of jazz for almost all music (even Jazz Rap)! But be sure not to get stuck on the sub-genre; try branching out to more solid forms of jazz."

It starts with the history. I believe music may be a way to connect to the past. Let's assume that music is a way to connect with emotional states. Emotions are highly connected to memory........... And if these guys are doing more than just writing music themed on sex and love but on political problems of the time, society itself, then a thorough understanding of history and music will allow me to better understand both. I will fill in the composers later as they are the vocabulary in this new language (I likely will need to download these from bittorrent as they are too expensive any other way).

Music likely is cultural transmission, it almost certainly is not completely disconnected.


Steve will probably not understand this article, Jarrod will.