Sunflowers - photo essay

It's sunflower season. Field 5 .1 miles north east of Lawrence on Hi-way 24/40 - about halfway to Tonganoxie from Larryville on west side of road. I put the roadsigns below - but the field of yellow is hard to miss.

You can pay a dollar and cut your own to take home. It's the honor system and I hope they make $. I donated a buck out of appreciation. My wife took the best pictures in the morning around 9am. Earlier might be better. Because the field is west of the road and runs up a hill, late afternoon isn't as good - and the moths, bees and butterflies are better in the morning.






Can anyone name this moth?

Beloit College Mindset list.

The Beloit College Mindset list came out this week. Find it here or find some discussion why it's relevant here. In it teachers are reminded that most freshman this semester were born in 1992, and their cultural references differ from those of their teachers who come from different generations.

I'm struck by the following - this year's crop of students

• have always had email and may never have written a letter and sent it "snail mail."
• They've never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day (and likely don't wear watches).
  
• "Go west, young college grad," has always implied "and don't stop until you get to Asia and learn Chinese along the way."
• With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
• Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.
• Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.
• Secondhand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.

NPR offers a nice and well-thought-out riposte - that the list tells us more about the people making the list than it tells us about the new crop of students.

Persied meteor shower?

Last night Perseid Meteor shower reached its peak, and we bundled up the family on a picture quest. My wife captured the moon over KU campus with 3 planets aligned - Mars, Venus and Saturn - over the top. We also experimented with sparklers while we waited for the meteor shower to start, but clouds moved in by 11, when the action was due to start. The lingering heat, persistent bugs and dust from the infrequent traffic on the old country road contributed to our heading home before midnight, without having gotten a pic of a shooting star, but I may try again later.

Andragogy - Teaching theory

Many education professors have recommended "A Teacher's Dozen" Fourteen General, research-based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms by Thomas Angelo. You can find the PDF free here.

It might be more beneficial to require students to read it than to just share it with teachers. It is a succinct and brief treatise on what we know about learning - and since learning is more efficient when students have clear reasonable goals - and when their goals fit with the instructor - maybe it should be required reading. We need to discuss active learning and how it is superior to passive learning, and how that will affect the expectations in the class.

At any rate, my students will start by finishing these metaphors

• "learning is ______________________________________"

and

• "teaching is to learning as ___________________ is to __________________"

What not to say to your prof

These were collected by a colleague of mine, David Davis. They do have a way of getting under a composition instructor's skin - tho I said at least 1 of 'em as an undergrad.

10 things to avoid saying to your professor

1. "You know what I mean."
2. "I really need an A" (B, C, whatever).
3. "I have a friend who is an English major and he said..."
4. "In high school I always got As" (Bs, whatever).
5. "I really worked hard on this." / "I put a lot of effort into this."
6. "Well, that's just the way I write."
7. "I wasn't in class; did I miss anything?"
8. "I couldn't get the assignment done because I had a big test in another class."
9. "Well, I don't think comma splices (organization, topic sentences, following directions, whatever) should be worth that many points."
10. Passing the buck: "My boyfriend/girlfriend was supposed to put my paper in your mailbox" / "My cable provider has really unreliable internet service" / "The drop box is really hard to understand" / etc.

For the entire list together as David wrote it, with his trenchant and entertaining explanations.

My classes will have to explain why students say these things, and imagine how an instructor will react. Maybe we'll do a role-play.

WTF: What the fruit?

I don't shy from exotic food - in fact it is one reason I love traveling. A blog post on BoingBoing.net reminded me that one of the fruits I grew accustomed to in my 5 + years living in S.E. Asia freaks people out. Maybe 1/2 the people in Taiwan like Durian though many have never tasted it. If you try it, you'll love it or hate it.

It assaults the senses. The stench is legendary. It looks like a medieval weapon until you crack it open, and then it looks like some alien in its larva stage. People generally describe the texture as creamy and rich - but it's... the experience of eating Durian defies polite analogy. BoingBoing shares

19th century British naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace described the taste of durian as "a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, sherry wine and other incongruous dishes."

One of the comments describes the experience in more visceral terms, in an expression common in S.E. Asia, "It's like sitting on the toilet whilst eating your favorite ice cream." You've got to read the comments. They are inventive and have the ring of truth. Even smelling it alone is unforgettable.

Which is funny. Long before I heard that expression I shared with my Taiwanese friends the theory that no-one falls in love with Durian the first time they eat it, but the smell comes through so clearly when it passes through you - and since, to quote Fat Bstrd from Austin Powers, "everyone likes their own brand" after you've eaten and passed it, when you smell Durian it will remind you of your own earthy odors - in the most positive way possible, and Durian appeal to you in a way it couldn't the first time you tried it.

Which explains why many people never try it. It's a questionable taste to develop since the fruit has more calories than ice cream and may be more unhealthy. Most hotels ban the fruit. I have a buddy who ignored the message in Singapore and left a Durian in his room while he went back out shopping. In Asia they do a very sensible thing and cut power to your room when you're out (if the room key isn't proximal to the room no power). Equatorial climate being as hot as Kansas in August, and heat having a liberating effect on the fragrance .... the whole hotel reeked when he got back - which made him amazingly unpopular.

Beef tendon soup

Common in Chinese cooking, and a frequent ingredient in Vietnamese Pho soups, Beef Tendon is surprisingly tasty and a texture not found in western food. My son refers to it as "beef gummy," and it's one of my "go to" recipes: Beef Tendon Noodle Soup.

Our pediatrician said other ethnic families he serves have asked him about feeding it to children - but he had no idea the nutritional content - other than "It's loaded with collagen - it's probably good for you." If anyone knows a nutritionist help me out. Most staples of authentic Asian diets are healthy - but I want hard data. Several sites sell pill supplements and make some strong claims about the benefits of collagen, but I don't find sources credible - tho they may be correct. Some in Asia will tell you eating collagen is the reason Asians keep their youthful complexion so long, but ...

I start with large beef soup bones cut into pieces - and the bones don't need any flesh. Asian markets have good soup bones - unless anyone knows a butcher in the KC area who'll cut up bones for stock (if so share in the comments). Hint: throw in some previously boiled eggs - peeled - and let them stew. By the time you serve the eggs will take on a nice rich color and flavor throughout.
Bones cook in the crock pot (slow cooker) over night with the spice packet shown, and a small handful of star anise. That's important. Add also some garlic, a couple red peppers, some whole black pepper corns, some orange peel (fresh or dry. I generally dry and keep orange peel).

FYI: Chinese food and "medicine" are more closely related than westerners generally understand. The revolutionary AIDs drugs that made life so much better for Magic Johnson and others was developed by a Taiwanese researcher and derived largely from star anise. Wish I could remember where I learned that [Citation Needed].

Cook the broth 12 + hours, and then throw in the raw thawed tendon 3 hours or so before you want to eat. Hint: I struggle cutting raw tendon and I like knives. Cook the tendon first and it's easy to cut. Throw in green onions, a little brown sugar and a dash of white pepper if you have it. It's a rich relatively clear and light, though savory broth with a clean body.

30 minutes before serving I add 3 -5 tomatoes cut in wedges. Serve over noodles - the fresh frozen kind you find in Asian markets is the best. I like the Korean Oriental Market on Metcalf in Overland Park for the bones and the tendon and most all produce. Ho's Market in Lenexa for the spice packet and the noodles.

Soup photo by W. Hsu. Anise image from flickr