Think Again

Hello all, I thought I would provide a bit of vocabulary: intersex- a broad term that can refer to several disorders related to ambiguous sexual identification. Two of the most common are Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) and Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) DSD- Disorders of Sex Development is an alternate term for intersex which has been promoted by intersex activists because of the confusion that the term "intersex" introduces with respect to gender identity. sex assignment- surgery commonly performed on intersex infants to distinguish them as male or female gonads- sex cell-producing organs, testes or ovaries androgyny- refers to those without gender-specific sexual characteristics, or sexual preferences, or gender identity, or a combination of these ISNA- Intersex Society of North America karyotype- having to do with the number and type of chromosomes etiology- causes of a disorder or disease virilization- the biological development o...

Topic Host: Philip Graham In 1935, at the height of economic turmoil, Congress enacted the Wagner Act (or National Labor Relations Act ). The Act allowed employees to organize collectively, which created a balancing of power, making employees and corporations "partners" in a successful economic recovery. Since the 1970s, unionization has been on the decline in the United States and apathy towards the same has risen to the point where, for example, some attribute the recent fall of the auto industry, in part, to overly powerful unions. Against this perfunctory backdrop, the question is if, in the current recession, a resurgence of unionization is the key, if not an essential, tool in rebuilding the economy. The prep materials are intentionally non-academic and brief (don’t be fooled by the number of links) because in my opinion the essence and true discourse of labor issues does not necessarily occur in an intellectual vacuum, but are reasoned and decided on shop floors, in lu...

12 votes: Wealth Redistribution (#15) 11 votes: National Debt and Deficit (#4) 9 votes: Manliness (#9) 8 votes: Labor (#8) 7 votes: Intersex (#2), Theology in religion (#5), Food (#16), Intelligence (#10), 6 votes: Child Choice (#3), Music Theory (#19), Paradox of sexual freedom (#18) Field Trip: Urban Design (d) (other votes pasted below) Since we have 12 topics, we will assign them all and not have a floating month this year. Please comment below if you are interested in hosting a topic. If you are not interested in hosting, but you are aware of some resources you could send to the topic host, please indicate that as well. Most of the topic hosts will end up being the person who suggested the topic, but if you are interested, even if you did not suggest the topic, feel free to volunteer. If more than one person is interested in hosting a topic, we'll work together to figure it out. The topic host's job is to thoughtfully select approximately one-hour's worth of prep mater...

Here they are. Leave a comment with your vote for your top 10. You should choose nine topics between 1 and 19, plus a field trip (20a. - 20l.) . Voting ends at 8:00 am Dec. 31. As usual, we will assign eleven topics and leave one month open for a current event or a runner-up. This year one of the months will be a field trip. 1) Legalized Marijuana in the U.S. Is its illegality having the same effects that prohibition had on alcohol--increased crime and crime prevention costs? And a look at the drug itself: Is marijuana really a "gateway drug"? Is it more/less dangerous to use than alcohol? 2) Intersex Some individuals are born with ambiguous female and male physical characteristics. Early 20th century doctors sometimes chose the gender without consent of the parents and performed an operation immediately. How do these individuals cope today? Are they attracted to both sexes as adults? 3) Child Choice What determines how many children people choose to have and how does this “c...

Please help refine the potential topics for 2011 and then vote on them. Here's the schedule: Dec. 21 - 27: Refine Topics (or add new ones) Dec. 28 - 29: Vote on Topics Dec. 29 -31: Confirm Topic Hosts and assign topics to specific 2011 dates The topics as they were submitted or discussed in our December Think Again are below. The topics may seem a bit muddled because I took very rough notes during the conversation and tried to include those notes below. Hope it's not too confusing. Anyone can refine any idea, whether it was originally your idea or not. Just take the topic idea and shape it into something fairly narrow in scope (so it can be covered in a 2-hour session). Post your refined version as a comment. Any of these topics could be approached from different angles, so it's okay if one of the ideas gets "refined" more than once - it will just give us more choices for the vote. For simplicity sake, I recommend this format: TITLE 1 - 3 sentence description of ...

Time to pick topics again! On Dec. 7 we will get together to mingle and merry-make while we discuss our topics for 2011 (think "party" more than "dialogue"). Please bring a little something tasty and festive to share with the group. Sweets or savories welcome! It would be great to have at least 25 topics to choose from. Suggest a topic as a comment on this post. Include a draft title and any questions or curiosities you have that led you to suggest the topic. For example: Tea Parties and Marijuana : Why the right stole the show in 2010. "Numbers in Nature" Mathematical patterns show up all over in nature. It would be interesting to become familiar with some of these patterns and why scientists think this happens. Left-Handers : What is up with them? Left-handed people are disproportionately represented in high-ranking political offices, corporate boardrooms, and in influential art circles. Is this just a strange coincidence or is there more there? You can...

How does creativity work? How do you get more of it in your life? Check out the links below and leave a comment with your thoughts or any additional resources you want to pass along to help frame our dialogue on the 2nd. Julia Cameron's website about discovering your creative self. Elizabeth Gilbert's 20-minute talk on nurturing creativity. Amy Tan's 20-minute talk on creativity: something out of nothing.