The fall semester is over and grades are filed. Let me fill you in on just a few new discoveries! Maybe it will help you impress a friend while watching Jeopardy someday. Ok, probably not.
General:
- You can always find a place to park on campus for an 8 AM class. The bad news is that it’s still an 8 AM class.
- It’s a little shocking how many people will simply stop showing up to class without bothering to drop.
- Equally amazing is the number of people who plan on taking a hard class twice to get a better grade.
- Online coursework takes discipline that many people simply don’t possess. “Oh, I don’t have to worry about those 3 assignments until December!” Right. That’s the same December when you have all those finals, remember.
- You can’t expect people to know how to pronounce words in a language they don’t speak.
- It seems like every new textbook comes with a DVD or passcode to a website of “helpful” study materials. Most of these are not quite as “helpful” as advertised.
History:
- I had mistakenly thought the old Lincoln Highway followed the route of US 30 west to Oregon. Turns out it changes route numbers and goes through Northern Nevada.
- If you tried to turn the events surrounding the Cal Neva in the late 50s and early 60s into a novel, nobody would believe it.
- It turns out that Nevada voters in 2014 get to decide on a change to our State Constitution to allow greater taxation of the mining industry.
- Most people don’t think to use hyperlinks in lieu of citations.
Spanish:
- In a Spanish class, nobody expects you to know Japanese.
- Flashcards are still important for learning a foreign language.
- “Textbook/Workbook” is a nice way for a publisher to make everybody buy new books.
Anatomy and Physiology:
- Reticular connective tissue looks a little like a cherry tree in blossom.
- There’s an area of your brain that handles a reflex to turn your head and look before you even form the question “What was that streak of orange and roaring noise?” Of course in Vegas it’s a coin flip whether that particular combination is a tiger or a sports car. Likewise about which would be more dangerous to encounter while walking about.
- Fancy color pictures of cadavers aren’t as useful as you’d think for learning anatomy.
- Weight training does not produce more muscle cells, just muscle cells with more stuff in them.
- Beta blockers are great for recovering heart attack patients, but lousy for anybody trying to improve their blood pressure through diet and exercise.
Ok, here’s the In Closing bits: you know I wouldn’t deprive you of a bunch of NSA, privacy, and Edward Snowden links, right?; on wages, fair wages, poverty, homelessness, and related issues; loophole; Palestinians; the next big fight in CONgress; worst CEOs; and just in time for Christmas, bad gifts.