Sunday, December 23, 2007

Mars

I was going by rickshaw the other night, when I looked up and saw – The Red Planet! To ‎the east, it shone like a red star, but it wasn't Antares. ‎

This is a great opportunity to see the Red Planet in its glory: it is almost as bright as ‎Jupiter. ‎

Of course, it isn't as bright as it was in 2003, when it seemed to be overhead, but I have ‎never seen it this bright since or before then. ‎

Watch out for Mars tonight!‎

effect of education on character

According to Bertrand Russell, the effect of Aristotle's teaching on Alexander was nil. ‎We can generalise this to affirm that the effect of education on character is zero – or even ‎negative. ‎

In light of the recent events in Bangladesh involving the academic community, it can be ‎safely inferred that with education comes a progressive deterioration in character. What ‎would have appeared culpable to any illiterate peasant appeared not only innocent, but ‎even laudable, to our teachers and students. Tolstoy was right to elevate the unlettered ‎farmer above the educated intellectual.‎

After all, it took a massive amount of education to turn French peasants into murderers. ‎

"no" to subsidised campus politics

Since our recalcitrant teachers cannot be disciplined by the law (for it seems that they are ‎above the law), and that they cannot discipline themselves, the only recourse for the ‎people of Bangladesh is to impose upon them the discipline of the market.‎

The public universities should be privatised: once private, they will charge market rates, ‎and teachers won't be able to moonlight as politicians and shut down the institutions. ‎

They will have to compete for market share: in short, they will have to start earning their ‎living, like the rest of us, instead of being subsidised by the rest of us. ‎

We, the people, refuse to subsidise campus politics. ‎