How To Miss The Point

http://www.teachit.co.uk/attachments/othrtime.pdf

Random Observation Of The Day

Stripping naked in public in front of five year old kids will get you years in prison, public humiliation and the ostracism of a wrathful society.

Stripping naked in front of five year old kids in a communal gym shower is absolutely fine.

Inquisitiveness

In this day and age, curiosity seems to be a good thing. By and large, anyway. After all, science and technology, the crowning glories of human endeavor, are the fruits of inquisitive minds. It was the curious types who found new lands and continents. Progress, in short, seems to have stemmed from this universal human trait.
However all of these gifts of curiosity seem to be relatively recent ones. In our evolutionary past, when we were nomadic hunter gatherers, or perhaps, even more primitive, curiosity must have been dangerous. "I wonder what's behind that tree..." must have often been followed up by, "Ooooh.... oh shit...", and the steady sound of sharp teeth chomping. I'm not saying it would have always ended badly, but surely the odds must have been against curious types. After all, for ages, folk wisdom has warned us that curiosity kills cats. And yet, humans are almost universally curious. We just want to know. How did this (very-useful-in-the-long-term) trait survive !?! How does evolution account for curiosity !?!
Just curious.

The Scottish Play

I haven't read a lot of Shakespeare, but I have read some of his more famous comedies and tragedies. In the majority of the cases, the case for which category his work lies in is pretty simple. Light hearted banter, misunderstandings which are cleared up at the end and a couple of marriages - comedy. Everyone you liked in the play dies - tragedy. Macbeth, however, is rather difficult to categorise. It's been considered a tragedy, but given that the story ends with the deaths of a traitorous murderer and his equally evil wife and the restoration of some sort of order to a kingdom that's been freed from their grasp, I would say that the story has a pretty happy ending. Sure, the play is dark enough and bloody enough, but strictly speaking, given that it ends on an upbeat note (more or less), it should be classified as, well, not perhaps a comedy, but certainly something other than a tragedy.

Sports And Drugs

Every time any big sporting event rolls round, people have this huge debate about steroids and androgens and all the rest of it. I don't mind - I love getting angry about anything. But I wonder if we are focusing too much on the 'male' drugs - the drugs that help pack on more muscle and help strength and power. Surely there are sports out there - rhythmic gymnastics being a big one - where a dose of 'female' drugs, which boost flexibility and suppleness would make big differences in outcome. Has this been looked at ever !?! Just wondering.

Gotta Love Canadians

I find Canadian innocence touching and, at the same time, just a wee bit disturbing.

I wrote some days ago about the British government contemplating the passage of a bill that would penalise offensive jokers with prison sentences. The most common reaction among my friends when I tell them about it (I told about 10) is, "That's a shame because the rude jokes are usually the best ones." Or words to that effect. The UK, of all places, is about to pass legislation that will kill its freedom of speech - and once the UK sets such a precedent the rest of the world will follow suit. And the main worry of my Canadian friends is that they may not get their money's worth when they next watch a stand up act.

Needs And Wants

People seem to consider 'need' and 'want' to be varying extents of the same phenomenon. If you really, really 'want' something, you are said to 'need' it. I'm not sure that's the relation though. The relationship is that of a journey (need/needs) and a destination (want/wants). You need something because you want something else. For instance, you need to breathe because you want to live. Without the desire to live, the need to breathe wouldn't arise. Thus, needs arise because of wants and wants must give rise to needs.

A Random Observation

I was looking up recreational classes to join over the summer - specifically badminton classes which would help me with my footwork. I've been playing the sport for a while now, but I still stagger around the court like a drunken sack of crap. Needless to say, they have taken badminton classes off the list this term. Just this term, apparently. Presumably, just to piss me off. 

Anyway, I started looking at other courses on offer, and then, due to the beauty of the internet, at random courses for all kinds of activities off campus and noticed something interesting:
A lot of them are sub-categorised into beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The thing is, while intermediate and advanced are indicators of ability, beginner is an indicator of experience. Hence, the three don't really form a set. This irritates the prude in me. However, calling someone a beginner is certainly more kind. Naming the levels 'Useless, Intermediate and Advanced' is just rude. So, despite my uptight views, I quite like the elegant politeness shown here. 

Eternity

I am at a rather liberal university and there are a lot of atheists around and trust me, no one dwells more on the topic of God than atheists.

I bring up this topic since I recently had a conversation with someone regarding God, or rather one of His attributes - eternity. And what I realised during the conversation was this: I readily understand the concept of something or someone without an end. But something/someone without a beginning - that's tricky. I have no problem logically comprehending the concept; it's essentially -infinity years. But I have trouble intuitively getting a feel of it.

Perhaps it is because, since we are still alive, it is possible to consider a scenario where that status quo is maintained. But since we ourselves had a beginning, it is difficult to get a feel of always having been.

Of course, this is assuming everyone else feels the same way. It could be just me.