Hat Tippin

Today I read an interesting article from the New York Times about plagiarism. Basically the youth of our society (the new generation of college students) doesn't see anything wrong with plagiarism anymore. Most internet media is perceived to be fair game. The removal of books in our lives has convinced the youth of today that ideas don't really belong to anybody, but rather our a collective property of society.

One thing I often consider is the way I share information on Facebook. All the time I am posting articles or videos that interest me or make me laugh. And of course I notice plenty of my friends repost things I've posted. Can I always say with absolute certainty they got it from me? No, certainly not. But it's rare to see a "hat tip" given out even though there is a chain of information passing. I realize these hat tips are small gestures to somebody who doesn't even own the idea, but there's something in the discovery and giving credit for that discovery.

In the article they quote a Ms. Wilensky for her ideas on what is creativity. She states, “You’re not coming up with new ideas if you’re grabbing and mixing and matching... It may be increasingly accepted, but there are still plenty of creative people — authors and artists and scholars — who are doing original work. It’s kind of an insult that that ideal is gone, and now we’re left only to make collages of the work of previous generations."

I think Ms. Wilensky has a jaded definition of what new ideas are. Everything we draw upon to create is based upon previous experience. Even when we develop the new or original it is because of past lessons learned. Now, I don't think this is necessarily the same as what she describes as "grabbing and mixing and matching." I think mashups are a good example of that. Something mildly creative, but not really taking ideas to a new level. However, as a student of political science, I often wrote papers that I'm sure were not completely new or groundbreaking ideas. However, their was an originality to it because of my route of discovery that lead to it. My experiences helped to unfold these ideas in a different light than many who came before me. And in turn I presented it to the world anew.

This communal property idea of knowledge and ideas destroys a lot of individuality. It decreases the incentive to produce and create more. I think the real problem with this plagiarism and communal knowledge comes from the desire to simply use it for personal gain rather than help return it to something greater for society. The availability of knowledge is a wonderful gift, but if we simply steal it, claim it as our own, and return nothing for it we are simple thieves. However, if we grow from these tidbits of knowledge and find a way to return something greater to society we will see immense progression from society.

Dating Protocol

So I came across this post on a blog for The New York Times about a book that gives tips for dating in New York City. I found this to be a rather interesting post because dating in Mormonville is certainly very different than the real world. It's interesting that this article drew my eye and that I had planned to write a post about this because my good friend Stella wrote a post which was basically her dating statistics. I really have no desire to compile anything of a similar nature, but I will say that I do bat about .500 when it comes to girls I ask out to girls that I actually date (and I don't use the term "date" loosely, these are all girls I dated for over a month's time at least). But I digress...

So the book is basically formed off of a survey of individuals in the city of New York although the blog post also consulted some of the statistics from other cities, most notably LA. So I'm not really going to quote the actual stats or what not, if you want to see that, go to the actual post, I will more talk about the generals.

1. Don't Trust Those Blind Dates

Here they mention that friends and family are the best way to meet a date (family is not the best dating pool, that's called incest but friends are fair game) and blind dates are really not that effective. Is anybody really that surprised by this? I mean the thing is you have to find a way to create a meaningful connection with a person if you hope for it to go anywhere. Blind dates aren't likely to create this because it's such a quick means of being thrown into a situation that is usually a bit more advanced along the lines of friendship even. Of course I do have a good friend who actually married a girl he went out on a blind date with, so it still can work.

Random side note, I've never actually been out on a blind date or ever been set up with somebody. No biggie.

2. Text Messaging as a Non-Romantic Medium?

Thank goodness the people mostly show some sense here. I really don't think text messaging should ever be used as a means of asking somebody out, but I can't deny I hate text messaging. It's somewhat of a necessary evil. That being said, pick up the freaking phone if you're going to ask somebody out at the very least. I think in person is a great way of doing it, but it often can be difficult. Of course in the case of the inverse, that is breaking up with somebody (or even expressing that you're not interested) a text message is still not appropriate. I can't believe anybody would honestly do something so impersonal unless they like feared for their safety or something. On the same note, yeah, email is not kosher.

3. What Do You Do With Their Stuff?

Ok, so I'm not sure this is usually as big of a problem in Mormon culture because you obviously aren't moving in together or staying the night, but sometimes it does arise. Frankly it's not appropriate to do anything with it is return it. I mean lets be honest, it's stealing if it's something they want back and you don't give it back. It's hard to justify doing much else with it. Oh and if you get engaged and it gets broken off, girls give back the ring. Why would you want it anyway? Seriously...

4. Do New Yorkers Like Traditional Gender Roles More?

I think whoever asks should expect to pay. Now I'm the type of guy that I typically offer to pay when asked out, but I wouldn't insist upon it. I do love it when a girl asks me out though, I find it very flattering.

5. Quiet Places to Talk

It's hard to really identify with this category on the survey. The locations aren't really Provo type locations. That being said, I feel like on a first date it's about getting to know the person, so it's probably a good idea to do something where you will have a good opportunity to talk. Of course, there's nothing wrong with going to something where you don't have to talk all of the time because that can often be hard on a first date.

6. Meet My (Fill in the Blank)

I think I'm a bit more onboard with the people who "want a reality check." I mean if it's a good relationship, you really shouldn't have to talk about it. But I guess the problem is there are so many people (undeniably mostly guys) out there giving bad relationships that a lot of the issue arises from that. It does disappoint me how often plenty of smart girls seem to fall for the tricks of dumb guys though. But DTR's are kinda lame and really something more for when you're getting really serious or thinking it's time to call it quits. You should know what sort of commitment you're getting and giving.

7. So-So on the Bridge and Tunnel Crowd

So this one definitely doesn't apply because it's about New York locality, but the principle of location does. Location can be a big thing in dating, especially early on. The longer the distance the tougher it is and the shorter you've been dating the more difficulty distances create. At the end of the day, it's all about how much you're willing to commit.

8. Where Does the "Other" Come From? Maybe New York

Look this is about infidelity and I don't think too many people that would commit such actions would read my blog. I think this is a slimy thing to do period, even if you're just dating. You make commitments to each other and if you want to be with somebody else, call off the commitments first (unless your married, then just accept the fact you're committed and enjoy it). I'm of the attitude that if you're dating somebody, you really shouldn't even be having relationship type discussions with anybody other than the person you're with. Wouldn't you want that kind of respect from the person you're dating? Why don't you give it to them?

9. Personality Matters More Than Money

Certainly should be the case. I think this part of the survey is rather on par for what it should be. Looks are an important thing because as I often tell people, you have to be able to stand to look at the person. If you're not attracted to the person physically, it's just not going to work. However, that doesn't make it the most important factor, just probably the one that piques your interest first. Most of the criteria is really up to you from there. You know what you like and I can't tell you what to be interested in, other than I don't recommend being all about the Benjamins. Financial stability is a good sign that it is somebody dependable, but they don't need to be Donald Trump.

10. How Would You Snoop?

Please, are we 15? Why do you ever need to snoop? Be an intelligent person, you can tell things just by being observant, you don't need to be snooping. Of course I think this is a more difficult thing for Mormons to be able to snoop because of the not living together or being in each others' intimate living spaces as much. I guess I'm pretty anti this though because of a bad experience I had with an ex stealing an email and AIM account. Impersonation is not a kind thing.

Overall I thought this was a pretty interesting insight into the world of dating and didn't think it was too far off base. At the end of the day I think the key to dating is simply remembering the golden rule. Honestly, we have such a hard time putting ourselves in somebody else's shoes to decide how things will be received and whether or not our actions and words are a good idea. It's not that hard people, just follow Jacob's words.

Actually, I'm a Big Fan of Yo-Yo Ma

Ok, so I lied in the title of this post, I'm really not. But I didn't want this to seem like another trite, boring post about the inauguration. My reasoning for that is I didn't really want to write about the inauguration itself much. It was a great occasion and I'm happy I was able to view it. A lot of what interested me were the things surrounding the actual inauguration though. As I was viewing the ceremonies, I think I was most taken with the beauty of the performance of the quartet. They played some absolutely gorgeous music. Of course the lead in was a bit funny. When I watched it the first time, I was chatting with my roommate Jordan on Facebook. It had stuck out to me that a lot of the crowd cheered quite heavily when they heard the name of Yo-Yo Ma. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't think anybody who is a true fan of Yo-Yo Ma would be cheering for him. Classical music just doesn't typically get that kind of cheering. So really I think this was just a case of the mindless mob recognizing a name and cheering because that's special. Of course I did notice the first time they also cheered a bit for the pianist (I didn't recognize her name) and on a second viewing, I noticed they cheered a fair bit for Itzhak Perlman (but still neither compared to Yo-Yo Ma). The cheering of the mindless mob really seemed to sum up a lot of the Obama election for me.

Of course I also noticed the repeated cheering of "O-bahm-mah" over and over. It really got me to thinking about how perfect of a name he really has for the crowd to chant incessantly. Just kind of one of those lil "That's interesting" things I noticed.

As a final note, more on par with the inauguration, the New York Times had a blog post about the actual inauguration itself. In it they mention the rather botched nervousness possessed by President Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts. I guess, although mostly to Chief Justice Roberts' blame, President Obama never recited the actual oath as recorded in the Constitution. I guess there's some "Lame Duck" Amendment or something that supposedly automatically transfers power, but according to the original Constitution, I'm not sure he's actually president. Of course then I'm not sure who is.

UPDATE: Obama redid the oath. Case closed.

UPDATE PART TWO: Biden takes a shot at John Roberts for messing up on the oath.

UPDATE PART THREE: The oath was performed the second time without a Bible. Guess that might make some of the people that didn't like the idea of it happy.

UPDATE PART FOUR: Some media backlash occurred because of rather limited access for the redo of the oath. I don't think is going to be too big of a deal though.

UPDATE ON YO-YO MA: So apparently the quartet didn't actually play the music live, it was prerecorded.