Evolution

I found the evolution articles to be very interesting because although I've always believed in evolution as the way humans were created, I'd never really known much about it. I enjoyed reading about the adaptations of the different hominids. I hadn't known before that there had been other species that had come from primates but hadn't survived. I had always thought before that it was only the line that humans had evolved from although it definitely makes sense that there would have been others. I thought that it was strange that they could trace the ancestry back to one woman and it's weird to think that she could have caused so many people to be created and that her great great great great great great great...[you get where I'm going with this] grandchildren have become so different from her. I enjoyed thinking about and hearing other people's thoughts on how we might possibly evolve in the future. It seems like everything has become so easy for us that there's not really any reason to evolve since there aren't many predators to have to outrun or prey to hunt down. It really left me wondering what other ways we can possibly change to better our chances of survival.
-Jenny S.

Can you or Kai please send me the web address for Kai's portfolio? I'd like to finish it before Weds. There is a hold on my account and I'd like to get something other than an "Incomplete" or a failing grade if I can register in case $3300.00 should somehow fall from the sky before the due date of 12-13. Thanks, Bill and enjoy your break.
billythomp@hotmail.com or
wmt@pdx.edu

The Lives of Others

I thought this was a brilliant movie. I usually don’t like foreign movies with English subtitles and I wasn’t too open minded when watching this film. Afterwards I felt it really stood out to me. The movie gave me a better vision of what East Germany was really like before the Berlin Wall was torn down. Saying the movie did not put into exaggeration the amount of surveillance and repression the Stasi had made. It showed what German citizens that had certain gifts like acting or poetry had to go through being under the total surveillance. Some, like the main characters in the movie, did not even know the actions they were doing were putting their freedoms at risk. But we’ll never know how bad this repression was because most filed records were by the Stasi. Who knows how much they could of not put into record. But overall I thought it was a great movie. I recommend using it for other future classes.

-Garret Kelly

Lives of Others

When watching a foreign film I was at first confused, then later throughout the movie it all came together. I was unsure about the motives of the characters but as the movie continued the more and more I understood the general concept the director was trying to portray. The first day the class began watching the movie I was not that interested to be truthful until the second day the movie was continued. It seemed insane to me on how someone could live that long and never know their whole life was being recorded by complete strangers who were suspicious of the actions.
In the movie Lives of Others it was extremely interesting seeing how the roles of the characters changed over time. At first I believed Christa Maria was going to leave Dreyman for the other man. Seeing how much her life was devoted to her boyfriend after all these negative influences attacking their life shows that everyone can make it, as long as you put in all potential effort. The subtitles made me pay more attention to the different scenes and caused me to be intrigued in the movie. Overall I believe the movie was very powerful and should be showed to other classes.

Noelle Melberg

Lives of Others

When viewing a foreign film it's really hard to keep track of the story line and follow what is going on, plus with having to read the subtitles and viewing the movie makes things more difficult. I will admit I really didn't get into the movie until the second day. The thing that I noticed the most was the change of Wiesler. Throughout the second half of the movie you could tell he was changing for the better. By his facial expressions and body language. It's something you don't see much in movies, so to see it in a foreign film was surprising. Overall I enjoyed the movie but I want to watch it again with a little more focus.

Lives of Others

So I'm not going to lie Alan, when you first told us about this movie, I thought it would be lame. But surprisingly enough, I really really loved the movie. It was so intersesting. It showed some actually realistic history and also had an appealing plot to it. Obviously not based on a true story, it had true element, which I love. I hate those movies that you can tell are totally made up and fake. Even though most of the stuff that was reflected realistically to the separation of Berlin I already knew, I was rather intrigued. Most people don't realize how it was such a hardship. People really were blacklisted to never ever work again with no reason behind it, such as the director Jerska. His most memorable line in the movie being so honest, "If a director cannot direct, what is he?" The truth is that this movie only showed a small effect that this movement had on all of Germany, let alone Eastern Berlin at the time. I didn't really understand why the Stasi were watching Dreyman in the first place. It kind of was not really fair how they began surveillance for no reason and then could use something that they weren't for in the first place, against Dreyman. Overall, I feel like everybody got what they deserved except for, Jerska and that nasty Minister Hempf. I feel like Dreyman deserved to put out the ideas he believed and still be able to use his talent of directing. However, it was so wrong that Wiesler, the Stasi captain, although never proved guilty, was still blacklisted for supposedly being an accomplice. In the end he was recognized for his good, not just punished for his "wrong."

Zimmer Chp 5 & 6

When reading chapters 5 and 6 of Zimmer's Origin of the Mind, it gave me an insight how many types of human classifications lead up to the homo-sapiens that we know today. Classification lead from the way the thumb was positioned on the hand to how straight the hominid walked during his time. Zimmer also showed pictures in how long and different skeletal bones were during those times. That lead Zimmer to talk about how mother nurtured there youngs and how chimpanzees seemed similar in nurturing there offspring. The tools that were used in that time were found all over continents making it show that these hominids were able to travel in groups to capture the food resources that they needed to survive. Also over time their bodies show that they changed to accommodate the harsh climate changes.

Paleoanthropologists also today rely on "reconstruction" to continue the study of these hominids. They collect unburied skulls and use tools take continue building whats missing from the facial features on the skull. The mentor session, I think, that taught this group led discussion did great in teaching what needed to be learned from these articles; made everything come together.

The Lives of Others

I really liked the movie, The Lives of Others. I missed the first class but I think I still understood what happened and the transformation that Wiesler went through (the recap at the beginning of the class helped). I think that it was really interesting to see a world in which people seem to have the everyday problems that we have, but they also have so much more to worry about on top of that. What I first saw of the movie was the part where the apartment was being bugged and Wiesler threatened Dreyman's neighbor about her daughter's education. I think that the transformation that Wiesler went through shows a lot about human nature and how it can change due to circumstance and the environment around you. When I was watching to movie I wondered if the transformation still would have happened if he had had a different, less corrupt and cruel boss showing him first hand how messed up and in the wrong the governnment was. I think that Christa-Maria's situation was relevant to our human nature course because although she loved Dreyman enough to stop seeing Hempf, in the end she still turned him in to save herself which shows the dog eat dog mentality of the world. I think that it was a good movie to show and I've already been able to relate it to other courses that I'm taking and ones that I've taken previously.

Jenny S.

Lives of Others

I enjoyed the movie very much. The movie allowed the viewer to see how absolutely crazy that system was. What I find interesting is that they didn't accept failure when trying to catch someone for whatever they found to be a crime. The reward for catching someone for being unloyal, especially if that person were a high ranking person, was a great one. The society lost a very essential thing in life, trust. They could no longer believe in the good will of human beings because everyone, men, women, and children, could not be trusted. The environment is a good example of how peoples lives can be shaped by what is around them. A lot of people really enjoyed reporting people because the society viewed it as a good thing if you caught someone, guilty or not. Once the Berlin wall fell, I am sure a lot of people snapped back to their normal selves and could hardly believe what they had done. This ties in well with the subject of nature or nurture. Some people were subject to their surrounding, and some people were subject to their nature. I believe it's a possibility that both nature and nurture help develope people. It's not absolutely one or the other, but a combination.

Andrew VanHorn

Lives of Others redux

Hey, I know you guys are focused on turkey, the Saints and that looming Chem final.... but one entry on the movie from two classes? I don't see a lot of movies in the future in this class unless I see some evidence of cognitive engagement