business government society 2
Jordi
Would You Buy a White Paper? Last WWYD?
As you know, we have been doing short vignettes-“What Would You Do?”-all semester. A survey sent to BU faulty about “dishonesty among students” got me thinking about the ability to buy papers on the Internet. I surfed to samedayessay.com . The following transcript is verbatim. I only changed the name of the customer service rep a I worried she would potentially face some retribution.
Interesting points:
- The company claims they sell papers to be guides only. I did not see the disclaimer anywhere.
- The cost to do my white paper assignment seemed around $425.
- Maria thought it was sad how many “lazy” students would use the service, but she seemed to suggest it was more acceptable for students also working or with other extenuating circumstances.
- I posed as a student for awhile.
- I left spelling errors in for accuracy.
Now online: Please leave your question here and one of our agents will attend to you shortly.
Customer Service
Hi there! Thank you for your interest in our services! Our friendly 24/7 support would be happy to answer any questions. Feel free to ask!
You (click to change)
so, I give you a topic and you can produce a 15 page research paper?
You are currently being served by
Maria
Maria
hi
You (click to change)
howdy
Customer Support
Hi there! Our friendly support reps are online, feel free to chat with us if you need assistance =)
How Grand Theft Auto changed video games (and the world). For Ben.
How Grand Theft Auto changed video games (and the world) – http://m.cnet.com/news/57414909?part=pulse&subj=latest-news&tag=related&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
Sain Jordi’s Day (Diada de San Jordi)
As you may know, my father emigrated from Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain. I was named for the patron saint of Catalunya, San Jordi (Saint George).
Today is one of my favorite celebrations from my second home- Barcelona. April 23rd is “la diada de San Jordi.” Traditionally, women receive a rose, and men a book. But you can mix it up how you like these days. Of course, this is especially apt as you have done your book posts! The city is covered with street book stalls. A whole city celebrating the love of the book! Nothing could make me happier! Flowers, meh.
Here is a short (2 min) video from BCN.CAT, a public broadcaster, checking in with average folks. You can hear mostly Catalan, a different language. For example, you will hear “roses”= roses, “llibres”=books (the “ll” in Catalan has no English equivalent. It is somewhere between “l” and “e”), “sempre”=always, “vermell”= red, “carrers”= streets.
Bon San Jordi!
Related articles
Turning Student Debt Into Opportunity
A college education is expensive. And necessary for many careers.
Many students, facing faster-than-inflation cost increases and sluggish growth in government loans, take on more and more private debt to finance their education. The average debt per borrower is now over $25,000 across all types of institutions, up from $19,000 ten years ago. 65% of students who entered Bachelor’s level-granting schools in 2008 graduated with debt.
Those indebted students forgo many of the choices and benefits of a broad education due to an obsession with “will it pay off” thinking.
Meanwhile, too many graduating students focus only on jobs with the highest salary for them to pay off their debts rather than careers that they are passionate about or that we need more of. For example, there are dire shortages of nurses and teachers. Many young entrepreneurs are unable to start a business due to debt obligations.
Three problems: 1) excessive debt; 2) obsession with “jobs” while choosing college courses; 3) misallocation of human capital into society’s labor needs.
One solution: student debt repayment should be based on ability to pay instead of absolute amount.
Pay what you can, not what you owe.
How would it work? All qualified college loans would be repaid using a sliding scale formula. If you make less than a threshold, depending on your family size, you pay nothing. Once you are above the threshold (maybe 150% of poverty level), then you pay 10-15% of your income to your debts with a hard cap of around 20%. Currently, the Obama administration started this for federal grants. However, the private, for-profit sector still dominates. Pay what you can plans should cover ALL loans. Whatever losses it incurs can be absorbed by the federal government. The upside will be more people finishing college, better educational choices while in college, better job fit after graduation, and all the economic and social benefits of these improvements.
Related articles
- One Nation Under Debt With Endless Debt Slavery For All (activistpost.com)
- Three Reasons to Avoid Private Student Loans (lexingtonlaw.com)
- Can Forgiving Student Debt Help Fix the Economy? (bigthink.com)
- Troubling Reports on College Students and Debt (pubcit.typepad.com)
- Rep. Virginia Foxx On People With Student Loans: ‘I Have Very Little Tolerance’ For Them (thinkprogress.org)
60 Second Idea to Change the World- the Last Post
There is a lot wrong with the world. But there is nothing wrong with the world that cannot be fixed by what is right with the world (thanks Bill Clinton for idea). I think the same mix is inside each of us. Hopefully, your education and this class have given you the means and tools to find what is fixable and how to start fixing.
In that spirit, your last post is to think of a “60 second idea to improve the world.” This is shamelessly borrowed form a BBC podcast I heard.
Please read your post and time it to sixty seconds! These should be short, powerful, and convincing.
There will be a small prize for the winning idea as determined by the post’s rating with my opinion being the final tie-breaker. You can see my last semester’s ideas on their blog.
The Shortest Post… Six Word Memoirs
Brevity can be the kind of constraint that produces creativity. For your next post, I want you to do this fun exercise: write your life memoir (actual or aspirational) in six words. No more, no less.
This is inspired by a book of famous people’s six word memoirs. Like Stephen Colbert’s :”Well, I thought it was funny.” Or singer Aimee Mann: “Couldn’t cope, so I wrote songs.”
To write yours, open this post, and add yours to the list (this way we can see all of them easily). Like so:
Jordi: “Jesting while jousting the stubborn world.” Also: “I don’t have time for assholes.”
Dana: “I am woman, hear me roar”
Derek: “Past experiences are ones never lost”
Joey: “Strike while the iron is hot.”
Catherine: “She killed him, I’ll kill her.”
Caitlin: “I wanted to do it all.”
Jenna: “I am wandering, but not lost.”
Patrick: “Only the strong will survive life.”
Amanda: “Self-discipline and karma get me places.”
Lauren M: “Living to learn and discover myself.”
Alyssa: “I did, I want, I will.”
Lauren D: “Why not? Just go for it.”
Ben: “Sometimes lazy, sometimes working, always scheming.”
Beth: “Believed she could, so she did”
Ryan: “Who am I? Well, I am…”
Titles of Second Papers (for easy ref)
“Employers Creative Use of Facebook” by Amanda
“Costs of Being Costco” by Caitlin
Irony in Research- US Chamber of Commerce
As I was constructing a list of business groups and associations for our research projects, I was looking at the US Chamber of Commerce’s website. The USCOC is almost always supportive of right-wing or Republican policies. I wanted to see what they had published or even researched about poverty for a student’s white paper argument draft.
Their search engine, ironically, asked me if I meant “property” instead of “poverty.”
Unintended irony!
Finding Gold Mines of Info- Blog Prompt 8- Cited Ref Searches
Cited Reference Searches.
As Brody explained, the works cited of an article, case or book is a view BACKWARDS in time to what the author used.
A cited ref search is a look FORWARD. It can be a very powerful and targeted search based on what you know is a good source. The idea is to look at a piece of knowledge and see, from its point of publication, FORWARD, who else cited it.
Several tools can do this. All are reachable here at the LIT page for management.
ABI/INFORM is one.
Google Scholar is another.
Web of Knowledge is the third, and perhaps the most sophisticated.
The differences are primarily around which databases it searches for references. The second is the presence of BOOKS. Only Google Scholar does books.
FOR NEXT WEEK,
1) Take a “piece of knowledge” we have used or referenced and
2) Do a cited reference search on it to find a
3) New item that is useful to you.
4) Briefly describe the new item. Continue reading
Blog Prompt- Somewhere to Visit
“Somewhere to Visit and Think Tanks”
The idea here is to write about a place you would like to visit and then explore think tanks to learn more about your initial interest.
Suggested steps:
- Write a paragraph or two about why you would like to visit or re-visit your location.
For example, mine might be Costa Rica as I went there for study abroad and would love to visit it. Or my wife might chose Lithuania to track down ancestors. Or, and I got to go a year ago, Berlin, because I want to see the divided city of my childhood memories reunified.
Explain WHY you are interested in this place.
- Now, look over the think tank resources we discussed in class and that are on the GOOGLE SITES page for this class. Your goal is to find a think tank that says something about your PLACE and/or TOPIC (why you were interested). Ideally, maybe you can find both.
- Pay special attention to the lists of lists on the site. For example, the NIRA, Kennedy School, and Columbia University resources.
- Discuss what you found in your blog post. Discuss, briefly, your assessment of the quality of the think tank’s information and credibility.
Why? Because think tanks can be useful research sources for your paper 2 and final white paper.
Sluts and Feminism
You probably know all about Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh, and the media storm over his description of her as a “slut.” Google it if you want.
Meanwhile, talking with my wife and her mother, I got on my soap box about this Bucknellian article about “Protection from Sexual Assault.” Look, I am sure the author, Sarah Morris, is being practical and trying to be helpful. Still, my reaction was that this is simply an update of the attitude that if women are sexually abused or misused, it is their fault. Like the recent comment in the media that in the old days, women’s I mean girl’s contraception was “an aspirin between the knees.” Google it. Where are men individually or “manhood” as a category in her analysis?
My self-described feminist relations both said I was over reacting and that it just made sense, the article.
Fine. I still think it is messed up that whatever amount of sexuality a women (or man) adopts somehow becomes sufficient for her to reasonably EXPECT to be coerced. I tried to rile them up by saying they are no better than the infamous women on rape jury trials who are MORE likely than men to say “she had it coming.” Look, women often enforce these gender stereotypes. Ask most straight men: we could care less about 95% of make-up, clothes, and body type. We are usually very simple creatures.
So, this morning, in regards the Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh news, my ma-in-law sends me this article from Slate that had the argument that some activists want to reclaim slut as their own term so that they can have “sexuality without judgement.”
She said I was “ahead of the curve.” Natch. Score one for me.
Related articles
- Rush Limbaugh apologizes for ‘slut’ comment (respectedlife.org)
- Rush Limbaugh — More Sponsors Running for the Hills After Sandra Fluke ‘Slut’ Statement (tmz.com)
- Limbaugh apologizes to student he called ‘slut’ (usnews.msnbc.msn.com)
TV Fun… Blgo Prompt for Blog 7 (pre-spring break)
Here is what the BC came up with on Friday. Enjoy! PS- if you are feeling like learning some tech skills, I recall I have had students use the VLC media player, an open source media player, which was good at extracting clips from DVDs at least. Even if you are clipping copy-righted material, I think you are covered under the fair use clause for education.
For this week’s blog post please select a TV episode of your choosing and relate it to either management or business. We will give a reward to the most interesting post. This entails choosing an episode that on the surface seems to have little relation to business or management, but that you analyze in a way that clearly connects the show to our subject matter.
Reward: Choose one week where you only have to complete half of the homework questions for FULL credit!!
Boring post example: Connecting an episode of The Office to business or BGS topics
Exciting post example: Connecting Paranormal State to business or BGS topics.
on Behalf of BC,
Jordi
I Hate Being White
Race is not a biological category. There is no Black “race” nor White nor Asian nor Native American. One way you can tell is that in my lifetime the numbers of races keeps fluctuating. Growing up in the South in the 1970s and 1980s, we would hear about the “White man, Yellow Man, Black Man, and Red man.” This, mind you, was in the context of treating all “colors” the same. Well, what in the hell are the new waves of immigrants, the “Latinos,” then?
This post is a very raw, un-researched post on my part. Continue reading
Prompt for Blog 6 (session 7)- Are We All OK? (race and gender in the usa)
Obama won, and Clinton almost did. I guess race and gender equality are “OK” now, right? We’re all OK?
Sparked by the conversation around Dana’s feminism post, the blog council decided to take up where one of her comments left off. Something to the effect of “most of American history is written by and about White men.” Given that identity shifts over time and is both a social and a deeply personal topic, we invite everyone to reflect on identity. This prompt is actually deeply in sync with some class topics: firstly, to understand one’s own biography in the context of how the history of identity unfolds requires a healthy dose of sociological imagination; secondly, as we touched on social movements, we can see that they are essential to the creation of alternate or changing identities. (Side note: see how I use a colon and semi-colons in above. 🙂 )
For this week’s blog post, we ask you describe an event or personal experience (one that you have direct knowledge of) that reflects the broader realities about identity in America, especially race and gender. (We can leave others like class or sexuality or religion later, if we want). That connection to a broader reality can reflect either “progress” towards more equality, or the persistence of “-isms,” or new wrinkles in the fabric of American culture (for example, the rise of inter-racial marriages).
A) Talk about a personal experience (of which you have direct knowledge of) and explain how this effected your perception of identity – whether it be having to do with gender, ethnicity, etc.
B) Americans talk about how everyone is too “PC” and how there isn’t really that much racism in America anymore. Or at least we’re taught that in high school. Is everything really OK? Is racism (or sexism, etc.) still a large part of American society? A medium-sized part?
Just to get the ball rolling, I could easily write about: Continue reading
Best of Stuff Week! The Stuffiest of the Stuff!, or, um, Something Like That
Hear ye, Hear ye, o writers and bloggers! We (Derek, Jordi, Chris) proclaimeth!
The Best Post:
“How Sweet are Those Kisses?” by Caitlin
Famous Old Ad of Chocolate
More Sweetness!
Upton Sinclair Prize for Muck-Raking:
“Target: Proudly Supporting bigotry Since 2010” by Joey Continue reading
What or Who Inspires You? Blog 5
Prompt for blog 5-
What (interest) or Who (person) Inspires You?
For this week’s prompt, the Blog Council wants you to examine how this class relates to your own interests. So, please write about how this class relates to some of your own intellectual or other learning interests. We are NOT interested in how it relates to a specific career goal. Continue reading
Frak/Frack update
PLEASE RATE IF YOU LIKE.
Serendipity: a fortuitous happenstance.
For example, Patrick posts about Fracking, the slang term for hydraulic fracturing. He and I both know it is amusing at another level because this gem of a show,Battlestar Galactica, the rebooted one, not the original, was great (trust me, even my wife who does not like sci–fi liked it). They needed a way to make the hardscrabble life of fighter pilots come alive. So they invented “frak” as a replacement for fuck.
It worked:
This led me to recall Stephen Colbert’s similar end-run around the FCC’s ban on certain words. Start at 3:10 to get it. I can’t embed the video. But it is frakking hilarious.
Related articles
- What the frack (bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com)
- Why Not Frack? (nybooks.com)
- New ETF Drills Into Fracking Space (thestreet.com)
- Battlestar Galactica Online is giving away a frakking 7′ tall Cylon (gamesradar.com)
I Heart WordPress
I was on blogger for my own interests as far back as 2004. And then by about 2008 or so, I started thinking about blogs in the context of teaching and writing. I can’t remember how I found WordPress.com, but in those “dark ages” of social media, it was a life line. See, Bucknell did not offer any good tools. I was told that “Blackboard has a blog tool.” (Now, having nothing to do with me, Bucknell uses the open-source version, wordpres.org).
But I had seen what a good blog can do, both in function and design, and I knew that a tool embedded on a cookie-cutter course management system would not do. It would be like telling students in a driver’s ed class, “we will drive real cars!” and then the first day they show up and see this:
WordPress.com was what I wanted:
- Simple to start to use
- Flexible
- Good-looking
- Plenty of ways to make more sophisticated
- Has a “good vibe.”
So, I started using them. Now, I know anything “free” is not, really. If it is free, usually you can count on the fact that YOU are the product (Facebook anyone? Traditional broadcast TV?). Still, wordpress.com’s revenue model kicks in when you use lots of memory or buy a domain (like myname.com). So, for me, for class, it was great product at zero cost.
So, what kind and kewl nerds made this gift from the cyber-heaven for me?
business government society 2 