Selfish Academics

Are, quite often, extremely selfish. They become so entrenched defending a closely held viewpoint, the truth of which holds a great deal of real personal benefit, that they:

a. Become extremely close minded about accepting other viewpoints – about accepting that they might be wrong. This often persists to the point that it greatly hinders human academic progress.

b. Massively neglect their teaching responsibilities. This can, in the small scale, involve teaching students their particular point of view with more preference, and not presenting hypotheses in context of global opinion. However, in some cases, this may involve completely ignoring the students learning needs, and essentially totally changing the course content and syllabus just to be able to preach about a particular closely held belief, which will most likely leave the students without the required knowledge for their chosen career paths. This approach is insidious, and a real abuse of power. At its worst, it could be viewed on the same level as teachers forcing their religious beliefs on students. It’s just plain wrong.

Event 20/20 BAS V2’s

Aren’t worth the money. They do look cool though. How do I know? Because I’ve owned a pair for 5 years. The truth is that the KRK rp5’s that I bought in New Zealand (at a fraction of the cost of the 20/20’s) are much, much better.

Yes, they don’t have the bottom end, and only reach lows of about 60 hz. But the simple fact is that tracks mixed on the KRK’s sound good everywhere, not just on the KRK’s. In fact they sound great everywhere. Tracks mixed on the 20/20’s, on the other hand, sound quite good on the 20/20’s, and pretty damn avaerage everywhere else.

Anyone want to swap?

I just

bought some new headphones. They’re AKG 271 Mk II’s. I know, I’m trying to avoid the trap of the capitalist economy and devote my time to more fundamentally rewarding pursuits, but man, they RULE.

All of the other headphones I’ve ever owned, I now realise, made sound out of cotten wool, candy floss and twigs. AKG 271’s, on the other hand, forge sound from molten titanium, diamond and marble. Bullet proof.

New Cars

are ridiculously expensive. And why? What do they do that your old car didn’t do? Is a £1,000,000 Mercedes SLR McLaren really five hundred times better than a £2,000 second-hand Subaru Outback?

It does come with red seatbelts.

Fair enough.

I can’t quite believe

how much my emotional viewpoint changes from one hour to the next. It makes it next to impossible to get an objective picture of the world. What I’d reallt like is a real-time, intelligent monitor system that measures my blood glucose, dopamine, hormones (etc.) and translates that data into a snapshot of my current mental and physical state. It would be helpful to also compare the values against historical / mean data to put the snapshot in context, and possibly, by mapping periodic (daily/monthly/yearly) cycles, predict my baseline mental / physical state at specific points in the future.

On a fundamental level

I don’t actually believe in right and wrong. It’s all a matter of perspective.

I do have a sense of right and wrong; I have a moral compass – I just don’t believe that my (or and other organism’s) moral comapass orignates from anything more than arbitraty fluctuations in a highly complex evolutionary landscape.

Think about this: Is it morally wrong to kill potntially deadly bacteria by cooking your food? No. Unless, of course, you happen to be that bacteria. Then you might find it quite inconvenient being boiled alive and you’d probably think – if you could think, of course – that being boiled alive as a result of doing nothing than minding your own business was, well, quite wrong.

Somebody once told me

they wouldn’t say I had rapier wit; more like a samurai sword.

You could say you caught me

in a transitional period.

The End Of The World

I don’t want the world to end. But I’d like some interesting times.

I guess at heart I’m a wartime leader.

Perhaps I’m being naive, or perhaps wishing for change is a natural reaction to environmental alineation.

Battery People

We don’t want processed food, E-numbers or battery hens. We want free range, free space and fresh air.

The invisible truth is that we’re battery people. We’re locked in a zoo of our own design.