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Talk to Each Other
Image drawn as a variation on Ari Kletzky's traffic signs. http://oldweb.uwp.edu/academic/criminal.justice/pblspari01.htm Kletzky wants to post signs on traffic islands to remind us to think and talk to one another. I want to display them everywhere, as cards, bookmarks, colorful reminders, funky jewelry, wearable art. Without the damage of posting them permanently. Give them away. Free. To everyone. Alter them and make your own, to express the projects and ideas that you're passionate about. Sometimes more words really can be the answer to words with which you disagree. jeanne
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: September 21, 2009
Latest Update: September 21, 2009
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
- Introduction
Arnold and I rode on the Maglev Train in Shanghai when we were there this July for the Total Eclipse. In the Maglev Museum, we bought a levitation device designed to show how the train runs without wheels, without touching the ground, without friction as we know it to turn wheels. Our amazement at the whole experience reminded me of how amazing most technology appears to those who have not een exposed to its advance in modern schools and modern cities.
What a wonderful way to let our neighborhood children experience the wonder of the new that led to an unquenchable belief in magic and the deux ex machina of the supernatural. We had to have the toy for Halloween this year. But they took it away from us at the airport. Finally we managed with my limited Mandarin and their limited English to get the staff to promise that they would give the toy to a school, where the children could learn from it.
But then we were faced with finding its equivalent here - so we could have it for Halloween 2009. I found one at Educational Innovations.
- Discussion Questions
- Does levitation still look like magic? Do our expectations that something can't be done affect the way we see what has been done?
Consider our expectations about gravity. Consider our expectations about ghosts and haunting and the hereafter. Can you see how people long ago might have thought the maglev train was magical? Can you see how back in the early days if an American colonist had used the magic of levitation as it exists in the maglev trains of toda, even you might have wondered at their magic powers? Consider that even today there are probably lots of people who would still have trouble not wondering if we weren't tempting Satan by messing with things we were never meant to?
- Why is it acceptable to some of us to explore new science and technology, while it remains so scary to others?
Consider the difference in seeing the maglev train today for those who have watched landings on the moon, satellite phones, GPS systems and cell phones and seeing the maglev trains move at enormous speeds without wheels, if you've lived all your life in small rural areas in mountains or deserts where people live with bisons or camels, and have never experienced the technology of our cities.
- References:
- Mice Levitated in Lab By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience; posted: 09 September 2009 10:01 am ET. Now, if you already know abour the maglev train in Shanghai, the maglev trains in Japan and Germany, some already running, some in experimental stages, you'll find the levitated mice a fantastic new scientifi adventure in modern science. But what if you've never heard of a maglev train?
- Micro Diamagnetic Levitation Kit Educational Innovations.
- Platinum Pro Levitron Top Educational Innovations.
- 2006 Lathen maglev train accident Wikipedia article on first accident with maglev trains. Occurred in Germany.
- Reference
- Farlex Free Online Dictionary:
