Enron #2

Please answer the following questions from the Enron article. Answers must be posted to your blog by April 18.

1. How does a Special-Purpose Entity (S.P.E.) work? Why does the "partnership" giving money to your company make a big difference?
2. How did Enron pit "twists into the S.P.E. game?" What does it mean that Enron "didn't always put blue-chip assets into the partnerships"? What was problematic about Enron using its own executives to manage the S.P.E? What was Enron's guarantee?
3. How did the world come to learn of Enron's use of S.P.E.'s? Is Gladwell correct in claiming that this is another example of a mystery? Explain.
4. What is the difference between "scrounged up" and "downloaded?"
5. Why does Gladwell claim that "It scarcely would have helped investors if Enron had made all three million pages public."? Explain what Gladwell means when he says, "But here the rules seem different." Who is Andrew Fastow?
6. Why has he "Disclosure Paradigm" become an anachronism?
7. Why did treating the German secret weapon as a mystery prove to be more useful? Specifically, how did the "propaganda analysts" (the batty geniuses) use reason to uncover the Nazi V-1 Rocket?
8. How has diagnosing Prostate Cancer transformed from a puzzle to a mystery?
9. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, how has "the situation facing the intelligence community has turned upside down?"
10. How does Admiral Bobby R. Inman believe the U.S. should strengthen the U.S. intelligence system? Why was his answer seen as unusual?
11. Gladwell writes: In a post-Cold War world of "openly available information," Inman said, "what you need are observers with language ability, with understanding of the religions, cultures of the countries they're observing." Inman thought we needed fewer spies and more slightly batty geniuses.

Does this curriculum sound familiar?

Enron #1

Please click http://www.gladwell.com/2007/2007_01_08_a_secrets.html and read the first few pages of Malcolm Gladwell's Open Secrets. Then, answer the following questions. All answers must be posted to your blog by April 8.

1. How did Anne Beliveaux respond to Jeffrey Skilling's claim that he was "innocent of every one of these charges." What were the charges?
2. What was Daniel Petrocelli specifically asking Judge Lake to do? What was the response of the judge?
3. What is the difference between a Puzzle and a Mystery? Be as specific as possible! Please consider why Gladwell does not believe the difference to be "trivial."
4. What does Gladwell mean when he states: "Puzzles come to satisfying conclusions. Mysteries often don't."
5. Initially, what did most people think of the Enron scandal? Did they think it was a Mystery or a Puzzle? Why would it matter? What does Gladwell think?
6. Please explain Mark-to-Market Accounting.
7. Gladwell claims that: "When a company using mark-to-market accounting says it has made a profit of ten million dollars on revenues of a hundred million, then, it could mean one of two things..." Please explain the two possibilities. What did Wall Street Journal report Jonathan Weil's source want him to find out?
8. What is the connection between subprime loans and Mark-to-Market Accounting?
9. Why did Weil find Enron's financial statements "sobering?"
10. Why was James Chanos interested in Enron?
11. Who was Bethany McLean?
12. Why does Gladwell believe Watergate to be a classic puzzle?
13. Did Jonathan Weil have a Deep Throat?
14. Why was Weil concerned that the officials at Enron weren't concerned about who would win the 2000 election?
15. After considering how Weil got his information, why does Gladwell believe Enron to be a mystery?

Egyptograms

Please post your notes from the Egyptogram lessons. Also, please refelct on the Egyptogram experience. Did you enjoy the exercize? Why or why not? Be sure to comment on the Kpelle reasoning story in the Egptogram packet. Please publish this post by Friday, April 3.

Wild Child Assessment

Choose from the following possibilities for the Wild Child Assessment. The option chosen must be posted to your blog on March 27th. If not, you will receive a zero for the assignment.
You may work in groups (two people max). All group members will receive the same grade.


In all options, you MUST address the following TWO questions.

1. Why does Dr. Itard want Victor to speak? (you should consider the questions asked on Genie, p. 72) to get the the heart of this question.

2. How does Dr. Itard hope to teach Victor:
a) Perception
b) Language
c) Reason
d) Emotion

Please be specific by citing the film Wild Child, Genie and Abel in your response to these questions.

Option A:
Create a piece of artwork on your blog that addresses the questions.
*BOTH Questions must correspond to the art and be fully answered(40 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (50 pts)

Option B:
Re-write a popular song/poem with lyrics that answer the questions.
*BOTH Questions must correspond to song and be fully answered(30 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (30 pts)
*Song must be at least 20 lines, clean with correct spelling and grammar (30 pts)

Option C:
Create a Movie/Music Video that includes Victor and or Dr. Itard
*BOTH Questions must correspond to video and be fully answered(30 pts)
*Must be evidence of planning and effort (10 pts)
*It must be creative and of high quality (30 pts)
*Video must be at least 10 minutes and clean (30 pts)

Please see me if you have any questions or concerns.

Genie #2

Please read the rest of the Genie packet Chapters 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 & 14 and answer the following questions.

1. What was so significant about Chomsky's argument?
2. What do you make of Chomsky's bird argument on p. 36?
3. Do you agree with Chomsky's claim about the island at the end of Chapter 7? Please explain your answer.
4. In Chapter 10, why were Genie's observers pleased to see her hitting other children?
5. Describe how Genie's language was developing.
6. After reading Chapter 11, what are the primary differences between the reading and the film?
7. How did the film, Wild Child impact the symposium members? What is meant by: "all of us saw in the movie what we were prepared to see to confirm to our own biases."?
8. What do you think of Dr. Elkind's quote on p. 59? How do you feel about Dr. Freedman's suggestion on p. 59-61
9. Why was it important for Itard to teach Vistor to "imagine the needs of others (p. 73)"? Does CAS do this? Why or why not?
10. After reading Chapter 14, do you agree that Truffaut's film ending was too optimistic?

For full credit, please post these questions to your blog by March 22nd.

Language Essay Re-Write

This week's optional assignment consists of you re-writing your Language Essay. If you simply re-write the essay on your blog, I will add up to 4 extra credit points. If you wish to get up to 7 extra credit points, please re-write the essay on the blog, adding my comments from the graded rubric. If you do add, please put in red on the blog. For the full 10 extra credit points, rewrite the essay on the blog, add my comments, and then add anything from the Abel Questions that we discussed in class. For example, maybe address Inscrutability of Reference or Chomsky's Linguistic Competence in terms of sign language. For full credit, please post the essay by Wednesday, March 18th.

In Class EE Questions

In Class, get into 4 groups based on subject and please answer the following questions:

1. What components are missing?
2. What are the strengths of this paper?
3. What questions come to mind after reading this paper?
4. How might reading this paper help you plan for the Extended Essay?

This is not a graded assignment. There is no need to post the answers to your blog.