What is a college student to do in today's economy?

Let's face it, the economy is down the drain. Jobs are being lost, people are cutting back and congress is complaining non-stop. But what about the lowly college student? Given the situation at hand, finding a job is going to be tough, to say the least, so that is off the table. What else can you do? Have fun! Party hard, study harder (you might as well, cuz you ain't gettin a job) and spend! College students are a key consumer demographic, and this economy is begging for spending, so buy that case of bud light and order that pizza, your nation is counting on you. Don't forget that your other job as a college student is to dream big! You may not get a job now, but don't stop planning for the future. Whether this recession lasts another two months or two years, it will end sometime and when that day comes you should be ready. Like it or not, the future is in our hands, and right now the best thing any college student can do is live a lot and learn a lot, and if you can, don't hesitate to spend like crazy.

Crazy fun at St. Maartins

Uh oh...
(click on image for hi-res)

No, this is not a picture of a terrible airline disaster, or even a miraculous crash landing where everyone survives (as we recently were privileged enough to see.) This, is merely feet from the edge of the runway at Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten Island in the Bahamas. Every day at this airport, pilots play a game of chicken with bystanders on the local beach as they try to touch down on one of the shortest landing strips of any international airport. The Island itself is a popular vacation destination, and many flock to this beach to watch planes of all sizes- from small cargo properllor planes to full size 747-400s- come in to land just feet above the beach. Check out the pics, then the video, its awesome.

images
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/st-maarten.jpg
http://www.jonco48.com/blog/airport1.jpg
http://www.aviationpics.de/prev/sxm4(1).jpg

video

"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

--Mark Twain


Amazing, isn't it? Its rare these days to find brilliant thinkers who can comment on whatever they choose, however they choose to do it. Had someone famous said these words today, they surely would have been somehow labeled as a bad person, as someone being prejudice. Mark Twain, in his life, could say whatever he wanted without fear. He was an honest man, and while not a Jew himself, he was able to see past the stereotypes and into an interesting reality that few people ever see. The following link is to a list of quotes by Twain on Jews, and they are some of the most interesting things I have ever read.

http://www.twainquotes.com/Jews.html

A case for net neutrality

Net neutrality is imperative to keeping the internet as the best place to create, gather, and distribute information. The concept behind net neutrality is simple: no one should have any more access to internet bandwidth than anyone else. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, they equated internet access with waiting in a line, and properly described net neutrality as the idea that no one can skip in line.

The inability to skip ahead of anyone else on the internet has helped make the internet so great. Giant corporations have no more access to the web than a lowly blogger or once-a-week surfer, which means everyone's contributions equal. For the longest time, one of the biggest advocates of keeping the net available to everyone was Google.

However, the Wall Street Journal article I referenced earlier was actually discussing the unthinkable, Google is apparently turning away from net neutrality. The company is reportedly discussing having a "fast lane" line for Google's information with many internet providers. This unforeseen move deals what could be a fatal blow to net neutrality, and this simply can not happen.

Net neutrality must remain an important part of web culture. Without it, the internet becomes just another product, rather than a collaborative effort to enhance the the experience of everyone involved. Imagine if Wikipedia was not free to all, but instead the ability to edit a page was simply given to the highest bidder? Suddenly the section of Wal*Mart's page questioning their work practices is gone. Without warning, the NBC.com youtube channel may be able to load videos ten times faster than your youtube channel, and that wouldn't be so great if you wanted to spread your work to the world.

What makes the internet amazing is that anyone can share their information with anyone else, and no one has preference over anyone else. This has allowed it to become the largest repository of information in the entire world, and every single individual logged in has full access to it at all times. If we give in, and let Google abandon the net neutrality ideals that they once held so dear, we are in essence giving up what made the internet into the free form exchange of ideas that it is now. I urge anyone who reads this to take up the cause of net neutrality: tell your friends, tell your families, blog about it, put it on facebook, do whatever you can to make sure that the next time you get in line to log on, no one skips ahead of you.

PS- This isnt just a grassroots campagin, president elect Obama is an avid supporter of net neutrality. More information about this whole topic is available here:
www.savetheinternet.com

Why there is nothing bad about Christmas (even if you arent Christian)

Christmas, X-mas, Jesus' birthday, December 25th. Whatever you call it, everyone knows about Christmas. Most of America celebrates Christmas by putting up a tree covered in lights and ornaments, going to church, and distributing gifts to friends and family. It truly is a time of joy for everyone involved. But wait! Aren't there some people who are not Christian?

Of course, there are indeed lots of people who aren't Christian, and most of them shun Christmas, and dislike the general holiday cheer associated with it. I, however (being not Christian- I'm Jewish) see things in a different light than many of my fellow non-Christian brothers. I celebrate Hanukkah every year, and enjoy the celebration of the holiday. However, I also find time to enjoy Christmas, even thought I don't believe in any of the miracles that were supposed to have occurred on that fateful night in Jerusalem.

So, I present a simple guide for non-Christians to enjoying Christmas, while not being pretentious or mean. The first, and most important rule of enjoying Christmas, and the whole of the Christmas season is to embrace the happiness and cheer that all the Christians have. When you receive a "Merry Christmas" from the cashier at Target, or Wal*Mart, don't think of them with disdain for assuming you celebrate Christmas. simply enjoy what they are doing: being nice.

Regardless of religion or creed, life should be about helping yourself and others live the best, happiest and most productive lives possiblle. When you smile back at the Wal*Mart greeter and say "Merry Christmas" right back, the greeter is happy his wishes are well taken, and you are happy for making the greeter happy too, everyone ends up happier than they were before.

The second big rule is easy: love the lights! Christmas means lights, bright lights everywhere, and as a non-Christian, the best thing you can do is love the lights as much as everyone else does. While Christmas tree's and nativity scenes are inherintly Christian, no one can deny the beauty of it all. If you can look at a house adourned with lights of all shapes and colors, and simply smile, you will find the season to be much brighter for you and everyone else around.

The final rule is about the day itself: what to do on Christmas day. Jews have a storied tradition in America of going to the movies with their families on Christmas day. In fact many people, including many non-Jews and Christians, go to the movies on 'the big birthday.' For me, this is the best part of Christmas for a non-Christian. It's not the movie that I love, it's the family. Because the rest of the world is closed down on Christmas, it means everyone is basically forced to spend the day with their family. Even if you are a person who doesnt like Christmas, you can enjoy spending the day with your family. Also, movie studios know that we're coming, so the movies on Christmas day are always high quality.

So why is there nothing bad about Christmas? Because, even if you aren't a Christian, you can still enjoy the festive lights, the holiday cheer at Wal*Mart, and most of all, you can enjoy spending Christmas day with the people you love.

Why cumulative, note-free final exams suck.

Depending on the reader, I may really be preaching to the choir on this one, but here I go anyway...

Finals, the ever-important test of tests that kids as young as young as middle school age are forced to take. I, however, don't want to talk about middle school finals, or high school finals, lets talk about college finals. What is a final supposed to do? It's there to test the students knowledge of the material of course, but in some final exams, that really doesn't happen.

Certain teachers (and everybody has had one of them at some point in their learning career) feel that the best way to test is to make it a fully cumulative final exam, with no notes. If anyone actually reads this, they may be thinking that I am simply complaining because I have one of these types of exams myself. They would be wrong, though.

It is indeed finals week at Indiana University, but luckily for me, none of my finals were like that. The fact is, if you tell students they need to have a an equal knowledge of what they learned in day one and what they learned last week, students will simply cram, and not learn. Yes, students should understand the material every day, but the best way to test that is by having questions that test comprehension of the courses main ideas. The best students are not the ones who can memorize the material the best- as is tested in many overly-large and note-less final exams- they are the students who can understand the concepts behind the material. 2+2=4 means nothing, if you can't break down and understand each of its components.

So, to all those out there in the world of academia: stop trying to shove your finals full of worthless questions! If you want to test all the material, give your students some notes for crying out loud. The real world does not demand of us an encyclopedic knowledge of introductory psychology, and our bosses will most likely never ask us how many apples Cindy has, if her number is the derivative of the number of apples Billy has. Its nice to understand the ideas and concepts, but the occasion where we wont have access to information, especially in a subject we did not specialize in (and therefore probably aren't working in) is so rare, that we just don't need to be tested in that manner.