Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Cool topic (word) of the day thread!

First rule: Its got to be cool!

Here is mine:

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

"Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact, also known as an automath, is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a tutor."

Look at the stuff at the bottom of the wiki link:

http://education.jimmyr.com/

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Polymath:

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


The dictionary definition is consistent with informal use, whereby someone very knowledgeable is described as a polymath when the term is used as a noun, or polymath or polymathic when used as adjectives. It especially means that the person's knowledge is not restricted to one subject area. The term is so rarely used that it is included in dictionaries of obscure words.[8][9]

Renaissance Man and (less commonly) Homo Universalis are related terms to describe a person who is well educated, or who excels, in a wide variety of subjects or fields.[10][11] This ideal developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404�72): that �a man can do all things if he will�. It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance Humanism, which considered man the centre of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted men of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments, and in the arts.

My sadness about this word is that there are few fields (profitable fields) where you can still have a career strictly via autodidactism...(am I even spelling that right?)
I had always heard Abe Lincoln was a self taught lawyer; not sure if this is true. Try to do that nowadays!

My delight in this word is the thought of folks like Abe, or Ben Franklin - more of your Homo Universalis, I'd say - he rocked.

Cool idea for a thread

I have just gotten to this thread! What a cool idea, I like it!

I think that with prestigous learning institutions like Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern offering distance learning courses via the internet, Autodidacticism can be achieved on some level.

At least you don't have to sit in a classroom. You pick your knoweledge ala carte, yet you get the big gold seal of approval from the big name institutions to back you.

Yes, technology is good! Nothing to fear my good Luddites!

Yes, here here! Awesome thread. I think my brother is an autodidact. He reads all the time, and has deep knowledge about his subjects of interest. Unfortunately, he has much more interest in his topics than his unlucky listener, who gets an ear talked off when my brother doesn't notice the social hints of boredom! After reading about GT, I think my bro would have been identified as 2e today - did not learn well in regular school setting. graduated from high school, but after a couple attempts at college, is largely self-taught. Also unfortunately, his interests probably won't lead to a decent-paying job!

Incogneato "Yes, technology is good! Nothing to fear my good Luddites!"
does that mean i have to get a cell-phone?

Oh for shame, st. pauli girl!

We got DD8 her own cell phone when she was seven!
DD6 had been yammering on about when will she get hers!!!

BTW, Can I just call you spg? That seems to be the way around here. The powers that be lopped my screen name off at 'neato!

well, i had a cell phone for a while, long ago (even with no land line at all!), but it seemed such a bother to remember it. If I had one as a child, it would have been lost immediately, i'm sure.

SPG is fine with me. You can call me Ray, or you can call me Ray-Jay...

Whichever you prefer!! You tell me!!

The only reason we got DD a cell phone was because it was free. Also, she had to go to a RE class(religous ed, not rampant emotionalism!-however she WOULD have to take at least a class if she ever would hope to be rampantly emotional!) right after school and the mom would pick them up from the playground. Since I didn't go to school on those days, I gave her the cell in her bag in case of emergency.

Also, it comes in handy when I send her to schoolmates house and I don't know the parents real well. It gives her confidence to know if she is uncomfortable, she can call me to come get her without having to get the mom involved.

For the record, she's only used it two or three times in a year and a half! An insurance policy.

Okay, I'm off to slumberland..........see you later.

SPG's good. (My ray/jay comment was an ode to comedian Ray Johnson.)

I'm glad your DD isn't in rampant emotionalism class. I'd go if it was a non-participation class.

With so many places getting rid of their pay phones, we did break down a get one cell phone. We maybe average one call a month for the whole family. We never have it turned on (except when calling out)and I never give out the number.

Just call me a Luddite-lite

I like that "luddite-lite" - great taste, less filling comes to mind, but doesn't quite work...

My DH more than makes up for my lack of cell-phone. I'm pretty sure he plays games on his while driving home from work. aargh!

I discovered there's no need for cell phones or pay phones - i got in a car accident, and no fewer than 6 people called it in!

I gave in and got a cell phone when I sent DS7 to school, mostly to make DH feel better for my safety. I doubt we even use it once a month. It is handy to have when meeting a group of people in a place far from home...which we do a couple of times a year, maybe. I did use it a lot at the Summit this year to hook up with people from this very forum! So that was well worth the money to me.

My usual comment before I got the cell phone still holds true, though: "I'm a stay-at-home mom. Where exactly am I going that I need a cell phone?" Most days, it seems positively pointless to me.

I also think of something that Oprah said on her show a few years back: "Who is everybody talking to!?!" That's what I wonder, too.

I hear people narrating their lives as they walk through the store: "...and I'm going down the produce aisle. Oh, look. Carrots are on sale..." Shut up already! Are you talking to communicate or just talking to hear the sound of your own voice?

The other pet peeve of mine is people exercising together at the park but talking on the phone to someone else. Is that really necessary? Could we maybe live in the moment a bit more? Ugh.

The kids don't have a phone and won't for as long as I can avoid it.

oh, and I'm an autodidact about the Norse, so clearly, I'm a big fan!

Oh Kriston - I am right there with you on cell phones. I so rarely use mine. I got it after I got in a bike accident and had to walk 5 miles with my bike that had a flat tire, torn up legs, and a cracked rib.

DH and I like to predict which people are driving while on their cell phones based on the quality of their driving. When I'm working out or grocery shopping I have NO desire to be chatting. And I don't often answer my cell if I'm having a conversation with someone else.

YES! The driving thing makes me INSANE!

I wish I could find a bumper sticker that says "Hang up and drive," except I really need to put it on the front of the car. By the time they're behind me, it's too late. It's the people in front of me who make me nuts!

When I was younger, I wished I could invent a device that would jam the radio of the car I was targeting and allow me to speak into a little mic. that would transmit what I said through their radio.......Can you imagine the fun?!?!??!?!?!

Better now, would be to be able to override their call and just start talking to them.

BTW:

AUSTIN WHERE ARE YOU.....WE ARE READY FOR OUR WORD OF THE DAY

DH and I often talk about wanting a device to jam people's cell phones--like the woman standing in the vestibule of the fancy restaurant yelling "WHAT! I can't hear you...WHAT!?!"

Lady, if you can't hear, HANG UP! Or at least stop yelling!

Re: Cell Phones

Hello, My name is Questions, and I am a BlackBerry addict! I read books on it (saves my back not to be carrying print books around - Kriston, make sure you allow e-book rights when you're book gets published), I have games on it, internet access, music, camera, video, you name it... Bluetooth for the car or when walking the dog. Just to show once again the diversity of this forum, LOL!

ROFLMAO- to both of you!

And I'm also aware of this: http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/23/technology/cell_phone_cancer.ap/index.htm

This seems apropos:

Pandemonium


"Pand�monium" (American English "Pandemonium") stems from Greek words meaning "all" or "every", and meaning "little spirit" or "little angel", or, as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon", and later, "demon" (thus roughly translated as "All Demons"). It is the name invented by John Milton for the capital of Hell, "the High Capital, of Satan and his Peers", built by the fallen angels at the suggestion of Mammon at the end of Book I, Paradise Lost (1667). A comparison in meaning can be made with "pantheon", which refers to all of the gods. Book II begins with the debate among the demons in the council-chamber of Pand�monium. The demons built it in about an hour, but it far surpassed all human palaces or dwellings; it may have been small, though, since the demons are described as shrinking from their titanic size in order to fit in.

Ahhhhh, pandemonium... DSthen3's response to Grandma's question as to whether or not he liked his first month or so of preschool at age 3: "It's okay, Grandma, when Mrs. ___________ is there, but when she's not, it's ... pandemonium!"

Pan�de�mo�ni�um / pan-duh-moh-nee-uhm / noun
1: uproar, utter confusion 2: bedlam 3:naturally occuring and consistent state of affairs at my house.

ROFL!

Satan kept Hell in an uproar so as He could supply the order. Milton knew about crisis politics all too well.

Austin, talk to me like I'm a two year old.

Are our threads bleeding together or are you making a seperate point?

Thanks,
Neato

I worked with a guy who liked sowing chaos like that a while back. He quit not long after I did.

I got an e-mail from someone who was still there that saying that they all kept expecting him to pop manically out from behind the water cooler for a good two weeks after he left.

Val

Seperate point. Maybe.

Paradise Lost is an allegory for Milton's experiences working for Cromwell. It is also a reflection on management styles.

A gifted 2 year old or a regular one??? Sorry, Neato, couldn't resist!

A regular one!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for coloring in the lines for me Austin.

So, are you Milton or Cromwell?

William of Orange!!!!

Here's one...

Curiosity:
"Curiosity is an emotion that causes natural inquisitive behaviour such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in many animal and human species. "

I have never thought of curiosity as an emotion! just a thing that takes over your brain so you can't stop until you figure something out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity

Malwebolence:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html

Great article. The author has a few other jabberwocks in the article!!!

Very interesting, and kind of scary... I do like the idea of "disemvoweling"!

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

A neologism is a word, term, or phrase that has been recently created (or "coined"), often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas that have taken on a new cultural context. The terms e-mail or email as used now, are examples of neologisms.


Here is a cool neologism:

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


A snowclone is a type of clich� and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers."[1]

An example of a snowclone is "X is the new Y", a generic form of the expression "pink is the new black". X and Y may be replaced with new words or phrases, as in "Random is the new order", a marketing phrase for the iPod shuffle. Both the generic formula and the new phrases produced from it are called "snowclones".

It emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed may be different in meaning from the original formula, but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation.

Does this count as a neologism?:

NCLB= No Child Leaps Beyond.

Its a Snowclone. The acronym NCLB leaves the original phrase open to snarky rewording.

In the ballpark, at least!

Now that the Olympics are open in Beijing, we can examine two words which are relevant.

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


Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false information. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or propagation of malicious rumors and fabricated intelligence. In the context of espionage or military intelligence, it is the deliberate spreading of false information to mislead an enemy as to one's position or course of action. In the context of politics, it is the deliberate attempt to deflect voter support of an opponent, disseminating false statements of innuendo based on the candidates vulnerabilities as revealed by opposition research. In both cases, it also includes the distortion of true information in such a way as to render it useless.




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


Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

Look at all the socialization going on!!!


CAFO

LOL!

The Antikythera calculator dates from 150 BC. It is a classic oopart. It was made by Greeks, perhaps Archimedes or Aristarchos. It calculates the location of solar and stellar objects in the sky given a date that is entered mechanically. It is the size of a smaller college textbook.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-place_artifact

Chimeraism and Fetomaternal microchimerism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)

The latter is (most commonly) where maternal cells live and reproduce in the child. This is apparently very common.

Chimerism is where:

In zoology, a chimera is an animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes; if the different cells emerged from the same zygote, it is called a mosaicism. Chimerism is rare in human beings: there have been only about 40 reported cases.

The difference in phenotypes may be subtle (e.g., having a hitchhiker's thumb and a straight thumb, eyes of slightly different colors, differential hair growth on opposite sides of the body, etc) or completely undetectable . Another telltale of a person being a chimera is visible Blaschko's lines.

Recent studies of tortoiseshell male cats and unusually coloured tortoiseshell-like cats suggest that natural chimerism is far more common than previously realised and that it frequently goes undetected.

A famouse Chimera case is that of Lydia Fairchild. She was arrested on kidnapping charges when genetic testing showed she could not be the mother of her kids. Genetic testing of her reproductive organs DID match.

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

Environmental Autism

This is the other side of the bell curve. But I also think it speaks to the needs of GT kids and how critical those first years are.

My SIL just adopted two neglected kids < 3 years of age. Neither could speak. They are making progress. When we were visiting them, jr would cry when they did. He could not walk and crawl, but was SO much more observant than they - so he studied them, and they studied him. LOL.

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article750838.ece

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php