First, read the rules of the game.

For some reason, this week saw an unprecedented number of visitors to the blog. It seems that there was a combination of words that matched common search terms. People may have come here for a variety of reasons, but some chose to stay, and I’m glad they did. I’m about to reach 7,000 hits, which last week seemed like a goal to shoot for by the end of December.

But while I’m glad for all of the new traffic, I’m not going to suddenly adjust the content of the blog to pander to the masses in a pathetic attempt to snag the random passerby. That’s not what this blog is about.

Anyway, this week’s challenge is actress Jessica Alba.

Jessica Alba has managed to maintain a professional career at a young age, without getting herself into trouble, unlike such stars as Vanessa Hudgens, Lindsay Lohan, or Britney Spears. Perhaps one day we will see her playing Texas Hold ‘Em on television, or on Dancing with the Stars. If I had to invest in the stock market of the famous, I’d go with the World Series champ of celebrities, Jessica Alba.

Well, that ought to do it.

Ringtones!

Okay, I’m done now.

I actually was able to link Jessica Alba to Sir Francis Bacon in six degrees or fewer, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, November 1.

Good luck!

And congratulations to Neel Mehta for winning last week’s challenge by linking Sir Karl Popper to Sir Francis Bacon in three degrees:

Sir Karl Popper > Bertrand Russell > Georg Cantor > Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Karl Popper addressed the problem of induction in a way that was commented on by Bertrand Russell, who studied the work of Georg Cantor, who believed in the Shakespearean authorship of Sir Francis Bacon.

I’m a story of structures; allow you to walk;
I’m the place of a meeting; permission to talk;
I’m a minimum wage, though employers may balk;
And the bottom of oceans, all covered with chalk.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Neel Mehta. See comments for answer.

This blog has recieved an unprecedented amount of traffic over the last 48 hours (about 200 hits), despite the fact that nobody new seems to have linked here. So this week’s question is this:

How did you find this blog?

First, read the rules of the game.

This week’s challenge is science philosopher Sir Karl Popper.

I was able to link Sir Karl Popper to Sir Francis Bacon in six degrees or fewer, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, October 25.

Good luck!

And congratulations to DeLisa for winning last week’s challenge by linking Benjamin Franklin to Sir Francis Bacon in a record two degrees:

Benjamin Franklin > Thomas Jefferson > Sir Francis Bacon

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers along with Thomas Jefferson, who was heavily influenced by Sir Francis Bacon.

I suggested that science make claims falsifiable;
I’m a fried cheesy snack; and make popcorn snacks viable;
A harmonica player with skills undeniable;
And a safe fun explosive (though don’t hold me liable).

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Brian. See comments for answer.

You may want to use a map for this one…

Imagine the 2008 Republican primaries are over, and only four candidates won any states. (DC, which is not a state, went to Ron Paul.)

1. Mitt Romney won more states than any other candidate.

2. Rudy Giuliani’s states included Massachusetts and Washington.

3. John McCain won all of the states beginning with one particular letter, and only those states.

4. Fred Thompson’s states included New Mexico.

5. Strangely enough, no two bordering states went for the same candidate. (Four Corners does not count as a border.)

Who won in Michigan? How do you know?

UPDATE: Puzzle solved by David. See comments for solution.

First, read the rules of the game.

This week’s challenge is, according to the Firesign Theatre, the only U.S. President never to be a U.S. President. It’s Founding Father and polymath Benjamin Franklin.

I was able to link Benjamin Franklin to Sir Francis Bacon in fewer than six degrees, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, October 18.

Good luck!

UPDATE: This game is no longer active. DeLisa posted an unbeatable entry: two degrees!

I am found on the ceiling, or in your PC;
I’m a lover of sports or a show on TV;
When I’m hit you’re in trouble (I kept it PG);
And the fiction you wrote where Picard meets ET.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Ro. See comments for answer.

Last night, inspired by a response to my deliberately vague Question of the Week, I picked up my old worn-out copy of Dune. I was assigned the book in high school twenty years ago, and still have the same copy, which means either they had given it to us, or more likely, I never got around to returning it.

Still tucked into the almost definitely stolen book is a bookmark that also must have been given to us in high school. It’s a “Cultural Literacy” bookmark, based on the book by E.D. Hirch that came out at about that time. My high school English teacher was a huge proponent of this book which literally listed pages and pages of references that a culturally literate person should know. Our teacher, who yet was cool enough to assign us Dune and Catch 22 (which I also somehow still have), would photocopy the pages of the book and assign us cultural references to look up and present to the class.

The bookmark has a very small sampling of these terms, which includes basal metabolism, taproot, intransitive verb, Tito, ombudsman, capital gains, and byte. If you can’t define all of those terms, this bookmark says you’re illiterate.

Hey, in 1987, byte was a toughie.

And that’s really the point here. This bookmark just screams the point: You can’t know what students will need to know in twenty years. The skills needed today are so much more complex than memorizing lists of references. In a constantly changing world, creativity and the ability to learn new skills are far more important than knowing offhand what a Eustachian tube is. If I did learn that in high school, it’s gone now, and I don’t seem to miss it.

And I do think kids need to learn facts. But facts need to be learned in context. If historical dates are important, it’s only because they allow us to understand how two or more events are connected to each other. Did we invade Iraq before or after 9/11? Knowing that can profoundly affect our understanding of both events.

If, in the future, both events were scattered among a list of “cultural literacy” items and students were required to look them up and present them to a class, that sense of context would be lost. Much better to give them authentic tasks that allow them to construct meaningful understandings. They’ll still learn the facts, and will remember them longer.

I worked with junior high school students on haiku poetry today.

Actually, I’ve been doing quite a bit of haiku lately, as it’s part of our poetry unit. It’s an easy form for the kids to write, though their free verse poetry is so much more compelling.

Do you have a favorite haiku? Neither do I.

Frankly, I think haiku is lost to the ear of the English speaker. Haiku is a Japanese language form, and it doesn’t translate well into English. The 5-7-5 pattern of syllables sounds different in Japanese, which uses a largely consistent consonant-vowel syllable construction.

English speakers don’t hear syllable counts; we hear stress patterns and rhyme schemes. Take the wildly popular limerick. There’s no syllable counting in limericks. A limerick has a stress pattern of 3,3,2,2,3 with a matching rhyme scheme. Two limericks could have a radically different syllable count and still sound correct.

Generally there are two unstressed syllables per stressed syllable, but even that’s flexible. In fact, we could take out all of the unstressed syllables and it would still kind of sound like a limerick:

Man From France
Did Quick Dance.
Asked Why,
Would Cry
“Ants In Pants!”

But if the stress pattern or rhyme scheme were different, we wouldn’t accept it as a good limerick. On the other hand, if a haiku were a syllable or two off in either direction, we’d agree it wasn’t a haiku, but our ear wouldn’t hear the problem.

Anyway, I’m still going to teach haiku, but that needed to be said.