Reflections on Academia

Well I've had my first week of university! New city, new job, new home, new friends, and new school! Golly my head is just about ready to explode.
Well the new house is lovely, I have fantastic roommates and we all get along splendidly so thank God for that!
My classes are interesting, Microeconomics, Spanish, Writing, Critical Thinking (or Logic) and Statistics. I'm enjoying them all (either for content or the friends that I share the class with) however something I am NOT enjoying is the blatantly obvious biases that my professors hold! My economics professor made a derogatory comment about the army (which was based on a very old stereotype that no longer applies) and my logic professor continually makes snide remarks about well-known Conservative politicians and church. At least in high school the teachers tried to keep their views to themselves and not influence us too much, I guess this attitude does not apply to university professors...
I have made some new friends, one of which wants to become an environmental lawyer so he can stick it to big oil companies (he and I have plenty to talk about ;)) and a few others in my various classes.
I have noticed an alarming lack of pants on campus! Being stuck behind those who have difficulties walking faster than the flow rate of molasses I notice that the "tights-as-pants" trend is fast becoming an epidemic. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? Put some pants on. Put some PANTS on. Larry has the right idea!
Another thing is smoking. Who still smokes here in the 21st century? There is a plethora of research to show that the benefits of smoking DON'T EXIST. Yet the stairs in front of school still house those dedicated ignoramuses, committed not to let fear or common sense stand in the way of them pumping their lungs full of carcinogens. We salute you brave idiots!

Those are my current reflections on academia, I'm sure there will be more!
Zhen

Apple is asking for your trust...

I was flipping through the promo blurbs for the iPhone 4G and I came across a startling quote

The iPhone keyboard accelerates your typing because it tracks what you type, then suggests words, corrects spelling, and inserts punctuation for you. The trick is to just type away and trust the intelligence of the keyboard.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that I am supposed to "trust the intelligence of the keyboard"? The really weird part is how accurate that pointer is, I have an older generation iTouch and its true, in order to type fast you have to let the iTouch correct it for you otherwise it just takes too much time. The terminology describing that occurrence just startled me, I have to trust my iPod to help me type... just rubs me the wrong way you know?