They Almost Got Me!
June 2nd, 2008 • Comments »
Let me tell you the story of how I almost fell prey to a money-order scam. First, let me just say that I consider myself to be an intelligent person. I hold baccalaureate degrees in both biochemistry and psychology, and graduated in the top of my class. I say these things not to impress you, but to emphasize the extent to which the money scammers caught me off guard. In general, I am very aware of my surroundings, and pay attention to the present moment with a relatively critical mind. I also happen to have lots of compassion for people who are less fortunate than myself. And that’s precisely how they almost got me.
The story begins with me placing an advertisement in the local newspaper. I was selling an old computer monitor, not worth much, asking a hundred bucks, obo. After a couple of days without hearing from anyone, the phone rang. It was in the middle of the afternoon and I was busy multitasking on the computer. “Hello?” I was immediately greeted by a third-party operator who explained to me that a person named “Mario” was contacting me through their TTD translation service. This was the first time I had ever experienced such a call, and was quite distracted while trying to figure out how to proceed. The operator informed me that this service is frequently used by deaf people to communicate over the telephone. My frustration at the impersonal techno-babble of the operator was suddenly transformed into compassion for this deaf Mario guy.
Several translations later, I learned that Mario had seen the ad for my computer monitor and wanted to purchase it. After obtaining Mario’s email address, we agreed to continue the transaction online. Goodbye rude, impersonal, disinterested operator — hello one-hundred dollars for my tired old monitor! Here is the initial email sent to Mario, replete with all of the requested information: Continue »
Diversity as Racism
April 20th, 2008 • Comments »
The post-modern application of the concept of “diversity” frequently results in legislation at federal, state, and local levels. Laws and regulations requiring diversity within any human population are racially discriminatory by definition. Legislated diversity resulting in the exclusion of one individual or group of people in favor of another on the basis of race or skin color is racism.
Taken literally, the concept of diversity is a relative quantification of the degree of heterogeneity of any given population. Each individual within a group is inherently unique and thus fundamentally different from every other group member. From personal experience and subjective ideas to emotional expression and developed intellect, the differences between any two or more individuals are both vast and profound.
Given these differences, the degree to which members of a group benefit from the diversity of others depends on individual willingness or desire to be influenced by others. For example, if John could care less about learning from his classmates, it really makes no difference if the people in his class are different in any way whatsoever. On the other hand, if Habib wants nothing more than to absorb the differences of his group, he will no doubt benefit, even if every member is of the same race, nation, and socioeconomic status. Continue »
Take Your Arguments to the Next Level
March 9th, 2008 • Comments »
Everybody loves to argue. Unfortunately, not everyone understands their own absence of understanding. As you listen to people argue, it always sounds as if everyone knows everything about the topic at hand. This behavior seems to come standard with humans, however, what kills me is how people never desire nor seem willing to take their argumentative skills to the next level. In fact, many people I listen to don’t even realize that “higher,” more sophisticated levels of argumentation exist, let alone how utterly “low” their abilities register on the scale. Thus, in an effort to inspire folks to improve their argumentative skillz, here is a rundown of several “key” benchmarks along the argumentation development spectrum.. Continue »