Busking in New Orleans

I just saw Purton Hupp down in New Orleans, and he gave me the inside scoop on the rules regarding busking there. Apparently, he learned them the hard way, as usual. In short, you can busk just about anywhere  in the French Quarter – except Jackson Square – until something like 11 pm. You can busk along the Moonwalk by the mighty Mississip, too. Buskers do not need a permit.

But the rules are different around Jackson Square.

Cell phones, mirror neurons, and driving

Recent research has suggested that driving while conversing on a cell phone is more dangerous than doing so while speaking with passengers. The researchers suggest that passengers, by paying attention to conditions on the road, help drivers to pay attention at critical moments, thus mitigating the distractions that conversations cause. This seems reasonable. I would like to suggest an additional reason that phone conversations are distracting: humans’ ability and tendency to imagine the world through others’ eyes.

Imagining mortality

Scientific American has recently published a provocative article explaining humans’ seemingly universal inability to imagine a lack of consciousness and, thus, an end to consciousness at death. In short, the conscious imagination never experiences non-consciousness. When we’re not conscious, we’re not aware and thus can’t remember what it was like. At most, we can remember regaining consciousness. This inherent quality may be a key part of the explanation for the widespread belief in some sort of afterlife.

But the article does not address at least one important dimension of this issue: imagining that other beings – human or otherwise – have the same kind of consciousness. It is a categorical leap to apply insights about one’s own experience to that of others.

Why breasts are fascinating

Have you ever wondered why women’s breasts are so fascinating? If so, here’s your answer, they’re like buttocks with eyes.

Now here’s your explanation. The first part basically recapitulates a common hypothesis:

Tips for Test-Taking

Our correspondent claims to have scored a highest-possible 800 on two sections of the GRE and over 700 on the third, without studying. S/he shares tips for doing one’s best while taking a test. Preparing is a separate and more important step.

IFS Guide to Test-Taking

 

Attitude is key:

• Your only goal and focus is to maximize your score for each section.

Purton Hupp

Purton Hupp doesn’t like to talk much, and even less about himself. Now, singing is another thing altogether. I’ve spent enough time with the man to know that his music is like waves noisily crashing against the shore. It’s easy to forget there’s a whole ocean behind it.

Still, I’ve learned a bit from the man. I hope he doesn’t mind my sharing some of it here:

• Crickets don’t tweak their songs. The leaves don’t tweak their rustling.
• If it weren’t for bosses, no one would sing about trains.
• Love is like a hurricane in the desert.
• If you’re proud of feeling zen, then you might be ashamed of feeling pain.
• Jokers are wild by nature. Most people prefer to play without them and don’t miss them when they aren’t in the deck.

Now you can listen to Purton break – sometimes against a cliff, sometimes on the rocks, and too seldom across the sand: http://phupp.wordpress.com.

Statute of limitations on horror?

Because I teach anthropology and history, I frequently describe horrific events. I’ve noticed that my teaching and students’ reaction to it change depending on the distance in time of the events in question. It makes me wonder whether, someday, enough time will have passed for even many sensitive people to treat the Holocaust cavalierly.

Let’s replace the 2nd Amendment

The Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding gun control in Washington, DC, has returned this issue to the headlines. A central disagreement, as usual, concerns how to interpret the Second Amendment (the full text of which is at bottom). Part of the problem with this amendment is that it seems internally contradictory. It justifies the uninfringeable rights of “the people” in terms of the necessity of “a well-regulated militia,” but the connection between the two is not clear. Another problem is that it addresses gun-ownership rights in terms of “the security of a free State,” (italics added) when most – but not all - of the debate over gun-control laws these days centers on personal defense, individual liberty, and hunting. Finally, it is not clear whether the amendment limits only federal powers or those of the states, too.

Given these ambiguities, why not replace the amendment altogether? Let’s have a national debate and referendum on a clearer amendment that will address the central point of contention – who, if anyone, can legally control the use and ownership of guns.

Are Teachers Productive?

A recent UN report has highlighted the average American worker’s productivity – about $8000 higher per year than the runners up in Ireland. That’s nice for the average Americans, I suppose, but what about me? I’m pretty sure that my productivity last year as a high-school teacher wouldn’t show up in that UN report. Was I simply an economic parasite?

Two Grades for One Class? Sweet!

What do grades in high-school classes reflect? Knowledge? Learning? Effort? The truth is that the grading criteria differ from class to class and, with some teachers, from student to student. As a result, parents, employers, colleges, and the students themselves inevitably misinterpret students’ transcripts. And students have insufficient incentive to focus on both of the qualities that people commonly assume are being reported: knowledge and productive behavior. I propose that schools issue separate grades for each.