All those topics that i wish i had time to pursue more earnestly.

Elizabeth Clementson: Down With MFAs
:

So here’s my advice—if have any aspirations for a place in literary history, don’t attend an MFA program. It won’t inspire you to great literature and you won’t be able to pay back that enormous tuition bill unless you write the carefully crafted plot line that everyone wants, but nobody wants to read.

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most of what she says can be applied to almost any given degree program, can’t it?

AlterNet: Life Begins at ‘Want a Cigarette?’:

In Christian terms, full humanity has never been associated merely with material substance. Declaring that a human soul comes into being fully formed at the moment of conception is logically at odds with its status as an organ of informed choice and goes against the whole thrust of the born-again movement. What I find so curious about the right-to-life position on the fertilized egg is its astounding materialism: A zygote has neither brain nor mind and no ability whatever to accept or reject the existence of a supreme being. A “person” — especially a Christian person — is a being of free will. To extend that definition to a single cell is theologically absurd.

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in case you did not know.

In-ear Headphone Round-up:

Dear readers, we have been wrong. The older folk among us—baby-boomers, cracked former students of the Naval Arts, and other geriatrics—have been underrepresented in our coverage, as evidenced as our hate mail today. Well, old-timers, this one’s for you:

Upgrade your iPod: In-Ear Sound-Isolating Earphones [ExtremeTech]

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i use sure e3c’s i think they are the best for the money.

Most popular news stories as ranked by readers of Yahoo! News:

A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

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this is wrong…

The Chronicle: Daily news: 06/23/2005 — 01:

Require students to pay a fee, equal to 1 percent of the amount they have borrowed, to student-loan guarantee agencies. Under federal law, the agencies are already allowed to charge the fee. But few of the guarantors have done so in recent years, for fear of losing business to competitors that don’t charge the fee.

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why? who does this benefit? not the students….

Takara Walkiebits Robot Turtles:

These tiny turtle ‘Walkiebits’ from Takara aren’t much more evolved than the wind-up walking toys Japan loves so well. They do have one new trick, though: you can tap a rhythm out on their shell—up to 15 raps—and the turtles will walk to that beat. Okay, not that impressive, but the 5 centimeter robots are only $13 (and might even show up in the US, as Takara is pretty good about exporting here).

Takara Walkiebits 5cm robots [TechJapan]

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walking turtles…..

What Kind of Insects Are Those Buffalo?:

Quote of the day from a page entitled "Perceptual Fallacies":

There is a tribe called the Ba Mbuti that provide evidence that size
constancy is learned. This tribe lives in a thick jungle where they
never are able to see more than a few yards away. When taken into a
field and shown Buffalo in the distance, they asked what kind of
insects they were. When told that the animals were buffalo, the
tribespeople thought it was witchcraft.

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this a great example of something that is universal in some sense, that we all live in our own contexts and reality outside of those contexts seems to be as much of a fiction as anything.

I am a Gauntlet Adventurer. I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning – especially when there’s a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can’t find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

from phantomcity

Open Letter:

I am writing you with much concern after I read of your hearing to decide
whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design to be taught along
with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important
for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves
the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however,
that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design..

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classic.

Hair Daze:

Hair Daze

surely this is the winner.