Gismo

http://www.huffingto..._n_1789406.html

Its' hard to tell if the professor or the students or maybe both are bigots in this case. Is it safe to say UCF is full of bigots?

Hello, Cross-Cultural students, I am writing to express my views on how some of you have conducted yourself in this university course you are taking with me. It is not uncommon for some-to-many American students, who typically, are first-generation college students, to not fully understand, and maybe not even appreciate the purpose of a university. Some students erroneously believe a university is just an extension of high school, where students are spoon-fed “soft†topics and dilemmas to confront, regurgitate the “right†answers on exams (right answers as deemed by the instructor or a textbook), and then move on to the next course.

Not only is this not the purpose of a university (although it may feel like it is in some of your other courses), it clearly is not the purpose of my upper-division course on Cross-Cultural Psychology. The purpose of a university, and my course in particular, is to struggle intellectually with some of life's most difficult topics that may not have one right answer, and try to come to some conclusion about what may be “the better answer†(It typically is not the case that all views are equally valid; some views are more defensible than others). Another purpose of a university, and my course in particular, is to engage in open discussion in order to critically examine beliefs, behaviors, and customs. Finally, another purpose of a university education is to help students who typically are not accustomed to thinking independently or applying a critical analysis to views or beliefs, to start learning how to do so. We are not in class to learn “facts†and simply regurgitate the facts in a mindless way to items on a test. Critical thinking is a skill that develops over time. Independent thinking does not occur overnight. Critical thinkers are open to having their cherished beliefs challenged, and must learn how to “defend†their views based on evidence or logic, rather than simply “pounding their chest†and merely proclaiming that their views are “valid.†One characteristic of the critical, independent thinker is being able to recognize fantasy versus reality; to recognize the difference between personal beliefs which are nothing more than personal beliefs, versus views that are grounded in evidence, or which have no evidence.

Last class meeting and for 15 minutes today, we addressed “religious bigotry.†Several points are worth contemplating:

Religion and culture go “hand in hand.†For some cultures, they are so intertwined that it is difficult to know with certainty if a specific belief or custom is “cultural†or “religious†in origin. The student in class tonight who proclaimed that my class was supposed to be about different cultures (and not religion) lacks an understanding about what constitutes “culture.†(of course, I think her real agenda was to stop my comments about religion).

Students in my class who openly proclaimed that Christianity is the most valid religion, as some of you did last class, portrayed precisely what religious bigotry is. Bigots—racial bigot or religious bigots—never question their prejudices and bigotry. They are convinced their beliefs are correct. For the Christians in my class who argued the validity of Christianity last week, I suppose I should thank you for demonstrating to the rest of the class what religious arrogance and bigotry looks like. It seems to have not even occurred to you (I'm directing this comment to those students who manifested such bigotry), as I tried to point out in class tonight, how such bigotry is perceived and experienced by the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the non-believers, and so on, in class, to have to sit and endure the tyranny of the masses (the dominant group, that is, which in this case, are Christians).

The male student who stood up in class and directed the rest of the class to “not participate†by not responding to my challenge, represented the worst of education. For starters, the idea that a person—student or instructor—would instruct other students on how to behave, is pretty arrogant and grossly disrespects the rights of other students who can and want to think for themselves and decide for themselves whether they want to engage in the exchange of ideas or not. Moreover, this “let's just put our fingers in our ears so we will not hear what we disagree with†is appallingly childish and exemplifies “anti-intellectualism.†The purpose of a university is to engage in dialogue, debate, and exchange ideas in order to try and come to some meaningful conclusion about an issue at hand. Not to shut ourselves off from ideas we find threatening.

Universities hold a special place in society where scholarly-minded folks can come together and discuss controversial, polemic, and often uncomfortable topics. Universities, including UCF, have special policies in place to protect our (both professors’ and students’) freedom to express ourselves. Neither students nor professors have a right to censor speech that makes us uncomfortable. We're adults. We're at a university. There is no topic that is “off-limits†for us to address in class, if even only remotely related to the course topic. I hope you will digest this message, and just as important, will take it to heart as it may apply to you.

Charles Negy

Doesn't sound promising. Looks like he would jump in a heart beat if Miami offers, which is very very sad. Why would you want to go to UM?

Beautiful campus, girls, beaches, and world class night life (all funded by boosters)?

I hate to say this, but if the car accelerates unexpectedly, then it is, in fact, a defect. Cars are not supposed to do that. Additionally, some people panic when this happens. You and I may know what to do if this happens, but it doesn't mean everyone else does.

Did the person put a foot on the accelerator vs the brake? Has the throttle system been altered? How do you pin it on the manufacturer? I'm not saying that they can be without blame, but that they go beyond reason to test these things and include fail safes. Even still there can be failures.

Your first sentence brings up an interesting point which I would love to add to if I may... One of the the most foolish thing I have seen in my life are people who drive automatics with two feet. When they do switch to a manual, I have seen where it took a couple of extra seconds longer for them to brake since they instinctively went to brake with their left foot and depressed the clutch... oops. Folks, if you drive an auto, you left foot should not be used. The left foot is only for the clutch and parking brake (if it is located down there).

A family friend drives this way, she has for years, but she drove a standard before she drove automatic. Idk why she drives an automatic like this. I'm confident 100% of the reports are from automatic vehicles. Were these standard vehicles no way the drivers would be blaming the manufacturer if they press the wrong pedal.

My guess is that there will be more in the garnett and gold! There will be a lot of the constipated groaning of the war chant!

Well if our previous meeting with FSU is any indication of the future, imagine how much louder bulls fans will be once we are 1/2 the crowd considering how noisy we were when we made up about only 1/5 of the crowd in Tallahassee.

As long as we are in the game I think USF fans will be much louder than the Noles' fans. It won't even be a question if we're winning.

Simply pounding the brakes would have stopped or nearly stopped these vehicles. If you were to do the mathematical calculations you would realize that the brakes are a lot more powerful than a vehicles engine, but car and driver went a step further and did the testing to prove it.

Simply using the brakes is enough to stop a 100 mph vehicle with the throttle held open, and the 120 mph test slowed to vehicle to a constant 10 mph. My conclusion is that these drivers never appropriately used their brakes.

Certainly the most natural reaction to a stuck-throttle emergency is to stomp on the brake pedal, possibly with both feet. And despite dramatic horsepower increases since C/D’s 1987 unintended-acceleration test of an Audi 5000, brakes by and large can still overpower and rein in an engine roaring under full throttle. With the Camry’s throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet—that’s a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry’s throttle closed. From 100 mph, the stopping-distance differential was 88 feet—noticeable to be sure, but the car still slowed enthusiastically enough to impart a feeling of confidence. We also tried one go-for-broke run at 120 mph, and, even then, the car quickly decelerated to about 10 mph before the brakes got excessively hot and the car refused to decelerate any further. So even in the most extreme case, it should be possible to get a car’s speed down to a point where a resulting accident should be a low-speed and relatively minor event.

Could you please explain what the defect was and why the brakes were ineffective?

Too bad people that don't know how to drive need to blame the car maker. Result being cars more expensive. Thanks!

A lesson for folks, if your accelerator get stuck or the car does not behave the way you expect it to, pop it in nuetral and pull to the side of the road.

i see you dont understand the issues

the is a defect in the car

I thought that this had yet to be proven. Isn't that what you are attempting to do with your case?

What was the defect? Mechanical or electronic?

So I guess he decided not to come talk to Holtz this weekend.

The Green- Gold Chant would work as well as South -Florida.

Also as others have said, butts in seats for the pregame and staying til the end. Many of us on here have gone to away games. Crowd participates in pregame when the band is on the field. Several schools fans did songs at the end of the third quarter.. Stay for the Alma MAter at the endo of the game and Learn the words to the fight song. its not that hard.

Sometimes it is when the police are there telling everyone to get out.

^^^ This... last season I tried staying for the alma mater each game and each game a cop came down and told us its time to leave... when we did not listen they got very testy. They were not just telling my group but everyone.

USF should do something about this crap... fans should be allowed to hang around for a while after the end of the game vs. being rushed out like, well a bunch of livestock

Just one more advantage of an OCS.

And I don't recall the green rags/scarves/bandanas at the WVU game. That was the best game of football I may ever attend in my life.

A traditions brain washing camp/orientation for freshman would help build school school spirit and pride imo.

I read on another board these were for one game only.

http://recruiting.sc.../2/1204991.html

all the qbs feel free to checkum out

Well I guess this is where all of the Shane Morris supporters find their comfort.

Ya even boosters were in on this. Sick.

Looks like some fans aren't happy about who made the selection in the comments.

I do not know about you, but I am very excited about this team.

How can anyone not be? This is arguably the most talented and deep team we've ever fielded.

Then maybe we will be ranked #1 this season. Hopefully for more than a week.

Or maybe just finish in the top 25.

I don't have a problem with consultants. If they feel they will get a better deal with consultants then go ahead and hire them.

I do believe if they thought they could do a better job negotiating the contracts and bidding themselves then they would. The hiring of outside consultants leads me to believe that they aren't confident they can do better.

I can't take any ESPN article seriously. The conflict of interest is just too great.

Do you honestly think Andrea Adelson is following some anti-BE corporate policy with her blog posts? It could be time for some of us to remove (or at least loosen) our tinfoil hats.

Honestly I think her reporting has been fine. However her employer ESPN is hardly an independent reporting agency considering that they have a vested interest in the outcome of the TV negotiations and the future of the Big East's media rights. The value of an ESPN article has declined since they began advising other conferences which teams to invite from our conference. Most of the negative things to be said about the Big East are an indirect (or maybe even direct) result of influence from ESPN.

Our running game may have an interesting dynamic this year with 4 listed in the 2 deep.

If he was a Texas commit the coverage would have been a lot different.

I can't take any ESPN article seriously. The conflict of interest is just too great.

I watched the first episode on ESPN3. I don't have ESPN on cable so it was my only choice.

How does one invoke the triple negative law? I don't not think that I haven't ever heard of it.

I don't hate Miami and would like to see them be able to stay strong but they need to stop with the non-sense.

Also aired on ESPN3.com

Wow. I'm surprised they would receive an accreditation warning. I really hope it is just the acceditation board being politically correct because of they pull accreditation it would destroy the university.

Unless he chooses here his decision doesn't really effect our team.

The more depth the better, love it.