Bias Much?

This morning in my economics lecture, the professor discussed The Great Depression and how it shaped modern Canada. He said that although factories were ready to produce goods, they were empty due to high unemployment. He mentioned how workers marched outside of the factories, and even though they wanted to work, nobody would hire them. My professor labeled this phenomenon as the Paradox of the Depression.

He then went on to talk about how certain conspiracy theories arose in order to explain this phenomenon. At this point, he somewhat digressed and began to talk about modern conspiracy theories. He mentions 9/11, and says that even though the Muslims were responsible for 9/11, one conspiracy suggests that the CIA was behind it.

Um, wait, did he just say, Muslims were responsible for 9/11?

Ok, granted, the people who claimed responsibility for 9/11 were Muslim. Whether or not they were good Muslims is questionable. But, I couldn't help but feel the need to interject during this lecture and give my professor a piece of my mind.

But I didn't. This man does have my final grade in the course in his hands after all. I thought about it, but couldn't think of a way to phrase my thoughts, um... nicely.

Ok, but let's say, for some strange reason, I happen to own a gun with bullets, and I decide to shoot a tree. I'm sure the news reports would have a headline that says, Muslim Girl Shoots a Tree. But I'm sure if my professor shot the tree, the headlines wouldn't say, Jewish Guy Shoots a Tree. When was the last time you read someone in the news being identified by their religion when they aren't Muslim? Rather, the newspaper headline would probably read: Man Shoots a Tree.

Um, bias much?

Weird Websites on the Internet

Sorry about the lack of updates... a lot of you complained lol. But if nobody comments then I assume nobody reads this thing so if you do, please comment!

So one of my courses is coming to a wrap and I've been attempting to prepare for the final. Unfortunately, there's this thing called the Internet that tends to get in the way of the studying process.

I came across this one website while procrastinating.


Basically, some guy decided to take imprints of the bottom of his mousepad on to a blank piece of paper to see wth it looks like. What I found the most amusing about this was the fact that the guy made it sound as if it's perfectly normal through his verbose description:

By switching a typical mousepad with a sheet of paper, I am able to collect an echo of my computer use over the course of a few months. The resulting drawing embodies both a warm earthy tone while also being indicative of the filth one accumulates through prolonged use of technology.

After finding this website, I decided to Google: "Weirdest sites on the Internet" and this is what I came across: The End of the Internet.

The End of the Internet

Congratulations! This is the last page.

Thank you for visiting the End of the Internet. There are no more links.

You must now turn off your computer and go do something productive.

Go read a book, for pete's sake.

I think I just got owned by the Internet.

On the GO Train with Smelly Meat and Michael Jackson

To be honest, I had consciously planned to not write a piece about Michael Jackson because I felt like I didn't want to contribute to the already existent chaos that the media has brought upon the situation. However, an encounter I had this morning made me rethink otherwise and I thought it would be worth sharing what had happened.

As I was riding the train to school today, an old man, who deemed himself as a physically disabled person (though if you ask me, I would have deemed him as clinically insane), took a seat beside a young woman. Their seats were directly parallel to mine, with the aisle separated between us. The old man began to speak to himself loudly, while carrying a bag of meat, which had a scent that wreaked the entire train cart. I was barely able to listen to the lecture on my iPod because of the old man's bickering, even with the volume turned up all the way. I decided to turn it off, but left my headphones in my ears.

The old man began to say the weirdest things and jumped from one subject to another, without making any logical sense whatsoever. He first began talking about the Jackson family, referring to the family as Negroes. He then began talking about how he received a $700 tax return from the government, and told us that he would allocate his return the following way: $400 to him and $300 for the "Negro" Michael Jackson.

Then, he randomly screams, "SADDAM HUSSEIN" and "Damn Muslims." I stared at the seat in front of me, pretending to listen to my iPod. The woman sitting in front of me turned around and looked at me. I raise my eyebrows and she rolls her eyes in the old man's direction and turns back around. He then proceeded to "speak" to someone on his cellphone (his hearing aid) and the people sitting around him on the train laughed. I wasn't sure if I should have been ridiculously pissed off at him for his racism, or if I should have felt sorry for him.

Regardless, the trains engine failed because the Go Train sucks. The announcement given by the customer service adviser said that it would take a while for the engine to be repaired. I either could have waited for the train to arrive at my stop along with this crazed old, racist man holding a smelly bag of meat, or get off the train and figure out how to get to school using the subway. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the latter decision is the better choice, and that's what I did.

If there's one thing I learned from this experience, it's that celebrity deaths have a profound effect on some peoples lives. Who knows why, but it just does, so much so that old men will fantasize strange stories involving themselves and the celebrities engaging in financial transactions. I wish I had some sort of wisdom to share with you, but I really don't. Celebrity obsessions are a dangerous thing and racism, a lot more so. I think what I had experienced today has unfortunately left me with a little less hope for humanity, and I could only wish that the current generation could eliminate this sort of racist mentality that still, quite shockingly, exists in our present day.

The Stubborn Searcher

So the other day I was at my university's bookstore buying a book for one of the courses that I'm taking in the summer. Now I don't know about you, but for some reason I would rather spends hours upon hours looking for the book, or any item in a store, by myself, rather than asking someone to help me out with it. This book in particular was something that I wanted to find on my own because the title of the book was, How to Read a Book. I feared the conversation that would go down if I had to ask someone where this book was.

So I'm aimlessly walking around the bookstore for a while now, and a man approaches me and asks, "Are you looking for something?"

Me: Yeah, I'm looking for a book for my professional writing course...
Man: What's it called?
Me: Umm... it's for my class... WRI324. Or 352. I can't remember which one.
Man: Do you know the title of the book?
Me: Umm... How to Read a Book? Or something...
Man: Oh...

So the guy walks up to this shelf and finds the book for me.

Man: Are you sure this is the book?
Me: -_- Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

Now the dude is looking up the course code on the computer.

Man: This book is for WRI352.
Me: Yeah, yeah, this is the one. I couldn't remember the course code but I know this is the right book.
Man: Okay... *insert the look you give stupid people here*

And this is why I'd rather spend hours finding the book myself rather than speaking to people. :)