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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 8, 2008 17:05:30 GMT -5
That's actually how I feel too when I watch the American elections on tv. It's like a big mudd throwing contest. I'm just waiting for the day there is a candidate without mudd that can be thrown at him/her and someone will go "Well.. when he/she was five years old, he/she stole a cookie from the cookiejar *Gasp*! Don't vote for the cookie stealer!" But hey, that's just me. XD I don't like my government either, if I had to opportunity to kick them out of business right now I would but we don't really have promising new candidates to form the new government either.. One woman started a Hillary Clinton type campagne and got shot down by the media for it immediately, and then we have a muslim-hater, radical christians, radical muslims and a whole bunch of other excentric personalities.. So yea.. XD Comeee.... soulssss for Hollaannnddd... XD; Nah. I do love Holland for the way people are here. We just don't really care, and that seems to work very well on avarage. In Europe we are known for being able to adjust very well (if we are guests in another household we just blend with them XD). But lately there has been a lot of trouble about that cause we adjust only to a certain degree -- right now people want to take away our right to be sarcastic and to make fun of everything and anything including ourselves. And if you want the fury of a true Dutchman upon you you should try taking that away. XD And Hollywood idolization is here too. Mainly among teenage girls who are completely obsessed with actresses much like it is over there. Dutch fans on avarage just aren't as hysterical. We still have our wanna-be Paris Hilton's and such. Seems like a wonderful life.. Lots of money, lots of attention, lots of problems, atleast one visit to rehab a year for inhaling/injecting/consuming some kind of drug that takes over, and no privacy or peace of mind whatsoever. Yeah, really seems like something you should want. ;
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Post by Katie on Mar 8, 2008 17:47:22 GMT -5
Politics is too messy these days for that to happen. I doubt that there are many public office holders left without dirty hands. -sigh- Although some hands are dirtier than others... -coughHillaryhackClintoncough-
In America, a person's right to free speech is, to some extent, still alive and well -- depending on which side you're on.
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 10, 2008 18:02:57 GMT -5
The same goes for Holland I think. It's just that at the moment we have a lot of trouble with people being threatened and attacked for making fun of certain things -- especially muslim-related jokes are subjected to a lot of threats and attacks. They think we only aim at them, while the Dutch are known all around Europe for making fun of everyone -- we make fun of ourselves all the time too. There's a lot of trouble concerning those boundaries now. But yea.. I wish they weren't being so hardass about it. XD;
Oh and today I got an email that at least my application for the Honours project has been accepted into consideration (you have to be put up for consideration first, so at least my application was good enough for that); They are going to consider the applications that were accepted into consideration on Wednesday, and i'll hear if I got in on Friday. So yay, there's a little spark of hope. X3
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Post by Katie on Mar 10, 2008 18:43:10 GMT -5
Pfft. People make fun of Christianity all the time. I have a friend who finds "10 Reasons Why Beer is Better than Jesus" one of the funniest things on earth. I can see the humor in it, but I don't approve of it. However, I respect his right to read and laugh at whatever he wants. Besides, it is God that he is mocking, and I do believe that God can (and will) deal with that without my help. Perhaps Allah and Mohammad can do the same, and Muslims can take a chill pill...? (If their god truly exists, and if he is the creator of all, etc. surely he is capable of speaking for himself...?)
Congrats on your application! I hope you get accepted. What, exactly, is the honors project? (Or did you mention it already?)
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 10, 2008 18:57:07 GMT -5
Yeah, I guess all of that is true. I don't really know if I approve of mocking other people's religions, but often the jokes that are made by say comedians are pretty funny nonetheless. It's not the mocking that matters as long as you don't cross a boundary where things really become insulting as you start truly attacking certain aspects of someone's life or religion more viciously. Myself, I'm a convinced atheist as you know, and there's a lot of jokes about atheism aswell, most of which I laugh very hard at XD (Not so much about atheism alone but brilliant none the less is Rowan Atkinson's Welcome to Hell.). I just feel that at the moment people are completely overreacting. As you said, people made fun of christianity all the time as well and we have never had problems with threats or attacks from christians as we do now with other groups. If I knew where they sell that chill pill i'd get it for them.
Not in so many words, I believe. It is a programme for the top students of the year to give them an opportunity to broaden their horizon and come in more personal contact with both their teachers and top experimenters and researchers in psychology today. Basically what you is in your first year (so now) you have to write a literature study about a self-chosen subject, next year you will get to participate in a group of 4 students in an experiment conducted by one of the teachers (so you'll see the tricks of the trade being experiment assistants xD). Then in the third year you will get to do an experiment of your own by yourself with personal guidance of a teacher and top scientist. So basically what honors does is that it's a personal trainer for the top students of the year to develop the potential to become great psychologists/scientists in the field they chose (cause of course you can chose your subject and teacher as you like -- I'm aiming for biological psychology now, cause there's not really a neuropsychology honor, it's basically caught in biological psychology). But first, I need to get in XD.
There's another advantage to it, too. I want to become a researcher and in order to do that you have to finish a research master of cognitive neuroscience or research science. And in order to get into one of those masters you have to pass a selection -- and an honor's degree gives you a recommendation from the head of the university, which is like.. almost a guarantee pass into a selective master. So it's very important to me.
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Post by Katie on Mar 10, 2008 19:10:37 GMT -5
That is so awesome. Why about neuro-psychology interests you so much? Is is more like a humanities/liberal arts field, or is it more like the hard sciences (chemistry, physics, and all those fun fields)?
Myself? Me = aspiring engineer. Like my dad. Except without the goofiness. (World domination is a very serious subject.) But maybe I'll have paintings of battleships in battle on my office walls like he does. >D
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Post by Taita Collins on Mar 10, 2008 19:19:18 GMT -5
Neuropsychology is basically just hard sciences. XD It's chemistry, physics, biology in relation to behavior (psychology). And I have no idea what it is about that that interests me so much. A while ago I had the opportunity to disect a human brain at university and I was just completely captivated by how ingeniously it's put together. But I've been like this pretty much since I was 11 years old. I remember I told my teachers then that I would later put people in MRI scanners and scan their brains XD (Yes, I was 11 when I said this, and it still stands). Right now I have a little more realistic view, but it still captivates me.
Neuropsychology is a very broad subject, but basically it is anything and everything that is related to brain areas and activity (so yea, every human function can be related to neuropsychology). A lot of it is directed to the function of neurons, hormones, peptides etc. so it's a lot of physics as well as biology and chemistry in trying to understand every human function possible. For example, right now one of my teachers is working on a computer that people can operate with their thinking by implanting an electrode in the brain of paralyzed people, so they can control their environment through this computer. There's a lot of experiments going on in that area and they are making amazing progress, also in the area of Parkinson where they have made people with Parkinson able to walk normally again without any symptoms of Parkinson by implanting an altering electrode in the afflicted brain areas. It's just amazing what they can do and what we might be able to do and know in the future.
.. You should not mock world domination. XD I don't really know all too much about the concept of 'engineer'. Isn't that more like science related to more practical problems? Like in neuropsychology most of it is a thirst for more knowledge (the practical things I described are only a smaller portion of the research going on, most of it is to try and understand human function which might be able to apply to some practical purpose later but doesn't have to).
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Post by Katie on Mar 10, 2008 19:30:01 GMT -5
Yep, engineering is, at its core, using science and technology to solve problems. However, research and development is a large part of the field as well. I'm not quite sure what exactly I want to do in engineering, but I'm thinking along the lines of electronics, computers... electrical engineering (like my dad), or computer science, something like that, not sure yet.
I heard a radio drama once where this huge broadcasting company had an evil plan to take over the world by broadcasting radio waves, and special devices would convert them to brain waves, and the company could thereby control the minds of the world population! Fortunately, said company was foiled, and the world was saved. Yay. More planet for me. xD
Not that... I'm implying that your teacher is plotting to take over the world or anything like that.
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