Upon entering the lab, I gave an enthusiastic “thumbs up” to a classmate of mine, Maria. She’s from Russia. Then, I got to thinking… isn’t that “the foulest of gesticular insults” in some countries? Hmm.

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Reflections on Our Future

In this calm before an approaching intellectual storm of more school, I find all the energies of my brain bent on the Big Questions™. I’ve always found it interesting that I only begin to ponder these questions when the day-to-day worries of my life are at a local minima — indeed, the vast majority of folks are just too busy to care. Sadly, I’ll soon rejoin that majority. That reminds me of a piece from a great article (certainly the best item I’ve read about higher education since Nussbaum’s “Cultivating Humanity”) entitled “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” by William Deresiewicz:

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Have you ever seen software that animates and compares data in an utterly useful yet also entertaining way? I hadn’t, until this presentation… At last year’s Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference, the Swedish leader of the organization Gapminder gave a fantastic talk. Here’s the video of “Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen”.

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I want to say, in my actions and words, “We are citizens of the world, and as such we all have a responsibility to try to make something better. You can pick what. You don’t have to pick what I pick. Just pick something.”

— Wil Shipley