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Humor

When you are seriously late for an appointment with a client or customer: " You know, Dave, we have a competition going on back at the office where we list the most irritating and infuriating kinds of behavior in the business world. I think my keeping you waiting has probably won."

 

Patriotism and Nationalism

The love of country-patriotism-is a very different sentiment from nationalism. A fine book beautifully distinguishes between nationalist and patriotic sentiments. Nationalism is an aggrandizing,tribalistic sentiment that define one’s own group as opposed to alien’s groups, which are seen as potential rivals or enemies to be overcome or excluded. Patriotism, by contrast, implies love of country without necessarily implying hostility to anybody else.

American patriotism is built of shared knowledges, attitudes, loyalties, and values, including the values of nonexclusion, toleration, and respect for other religions and cultures. American have proved it is possible to feel patriotic about a coscompolitan, diverse country, which is loved more of its vital diversity than for its racial, or ethnic purity.

general-knowledge

http://books.google.com/books?id=GAzOg4eQl2YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+dictionary+of+cultural+literacy&source=bl&ots=Gt-b6NSp6-&sig=gMUo_4y302v3x6ck-dxoXoyno7k&hl=zh-CN&ei=qQbSTLGtEIPGlQfZ0O2dDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

下雪了

天气预报挺准的，上周日根据天气预报，40%的概率这周末会下雪，周一周二碰到那些学生，都在讨论这些事，我还觉得奇怪，不是说40%的概率吗，怎么大家说的都像铁定要下似的，今天果然下雪了。

今天看了一个history节目，介绍美国的pizza发展史，其中有一段挺有意思，Domino是第一家提出保证在30mins之内送货上门的pizza店，如果超出这个时间，pizza免费，这大大增加了Domino的竞争力。但是有一次Domino送pizza的车子撞到了行人，结果Domino的CEO公开申明取消30mins送货上门的保证。从中可以看出美国法律的力量。

虽然窗外下着雪，但是附近高中的football还在照常进行，室外温度大概0摄氏度，美国人对这项运动的狂热真是没得说。

Cultural literacy

Cultural literacy is the ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical reference to understanding the most recent slang, literacy demands interaction with the culture and reflection of it. A knowledge of a canonical set of literature is not valuable when engaging with others in a society if the knowledge stops at the end of the text — as life is interwoven with art, expression, history and experience, cultural literacy requires the broad range of trivia and the use of that trivia in the creation of a communal language and a "groupthink." Cultural literacy or the "Core Knowledge" movement stresses the knowledge of those pieces of information which content creators will assume the audience already possesses.

 

Recommend book: "the dictionary of cultural literacy"

天冷了

这两天Boone变冷了，据说周六有40%的概率会下雪。再过两个星期估计山里的滑雪场要开了。

如果是晴天，这边天上的云会很少，太阳照在身上很暖和，但是太阳一下山，气温就降了。所以就感觉很奇怪，中午有点热，晚上有点凉，不知道该怎么穿衣服。碰到下雨天，乌云密布，但大雨倾盆后天又放晴了，太阳又会出来。很少有阴天的情况。

美国体育比赛太多了，而且每项运动都发展的很好，有很多观众。橄榄球排名第一，周六周日都有橄榄球比赛，接下来BASEBALL,NBA,GOLF,BOXING,WRESTING,NSCAR，还有poker比赛，太多了，所以不是所有的学生都希望聪明，学习好，那些有体育特长也能赚钱。有一次看到学校提供一些science方面的讲座，对象是academic-gifted的小学生。这些孩子以后估计就喜欢做研究。做你感兴趣的事效率最高。

Fact or Faked

Fact or Faked算是一档科教类节目，挺有意思。每次会找一个视频，然后自己通过实验来验证视频的真实性，上次看到一个是一张长桌，摩托车牵引着桌布的一边，开到最大马力向前冲，桌布会被扯下来，而桌上的杯子，碗碟都不会掉，物理上应该解释为惯性，但是这次桌子比较长，那么视频是真实的吗？于是一帮人就开始实验验证，经过反复实验发现是不可能的，每次杯子都会被带倒，这帮人最后对视频的解释是在桌布上还垫着一张plastic，杯子，碗碟都是放在plastic上而不是直接在桌布上，这样扯掉桌布时不会带倒杯子。

Religion

今天上课讨论宗教信仰，有一个小朋友是越南来的，他说自己信佛教，而且理所当然的认为来自中国的我也信佛教，我摇了摇头，他一脸惊愕。我也觉得奇怪，我们怎么都没有宗教信仰呢？想来从小到大都是教导无神论，如果你有宗教信仰，就不可能加入少年先锋队，共青团等等。而这些都是评价一个学生是否是好学生的标准。所以我们怎么能信教呢?想想如果我跟他们解释我是无神论者，他们估计会觉得我是异类吧。

 

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The new dictionary of cultural literacy