Friday, January 16, 2009

How to halucinate

Check out this link: Boston.com - Ideas - Globe

Awesome. Although, we're not talking the type of acid-trip halucination you're probably thinking about. It would produce more of a "distortion" type of illusion that wouldn't be terribly dramatic.

Still - tripping out sans drugs.....could be a neat party trick.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Picking college applicants based on politics

Dr. Helen: Should schools pick applicants based on their adherence to "social justice"?

This is a truly disturbing post, and an even more disturbing trend. Some of the comments are really worthwhile as well. "Diversity" usually boils down to the where and to whom someone was born - whereas who a person actually becomes is a product of their personal decisions. So, diversity, if people really meant what they wanted it to mean, would include not just skin color or nationality, but also religious, philosophical and political ideology. If that were actually the case, just imagine how fun a class discussion would be with a truly diverse student body? That would be a dream come true (assuming that the discussion stays civil).

There are some that would argue that personal ideology is very accurately reflected in the individual based on the ideology of their parents and/or environment. But that really is a straw-man argument. I can 100% guarantee that if you are born in Nigeria, you will be considered Nigerian. If you are born to dyed-in-the-wool religious southern conservative parents, there is a very real possibility that you could end up an atheistic, socialist left-winger. There is just no way to predict with 100% accuracy.

That's the beauty of the kind of diversity mentioned. True diversity would span every aspect of humanity - not just nationality or skin color or even socioeconomic status.

Saturday, January 03, 2009