Archive | August, 2010

Googling Myself

22 Aug

I discovered something funny while googling myself the other day. I know googling used to be seen as vain, done only by people who wanted to point and shout “Look, that’s me, ME!” but I think that’s an idea that’s out of date, like the idea that a man isn’t properly dressed without a hat, or that using olive oil is pretentious. If you have an online presence, it’s a good idea to type your name into a search engine once in a while to check if you are being misrepresented or plagiarised (and of course so that you can go “That’s me, me!”).

The funny thing I discovered is that one of my article for Suite 101, “Aristotle’s Golden Mean“, is required reading for the Art Institute of California’s Ethics course!  It’s not the first time someone’s used one of my articles (usually as content on other websites), and it’s freely available, so there’s no problem there, but this is first time I’m aware of that students have been forced to read something I’ve written.  It’s only about 500 words so it’s no great hardship for them (compare that to the Nicomachean Ethics the article is based on), and this in itself may be an indication that it’s not the most in-depth ethics course on the market, but I’m not going to criticise the Institute, because I’m very flattered!

When I rule the world…

10 Aug

It’s not going to happen (which is undoubtedly for the best) but here’s what would happen if I suddenly found myself in charge of the world – or just the country.

1) Car culture would be a thing of the past.  You’re not getting one unless you have a good reason, like living in the country or having limited physical mobility.  I am sick of almost missing my train even though I live two minutes from the station, because you can’t even cross the road in the morning.

2) Anyone who let their dog foul and didn’t clear it up would have their dog taken off them.  Of course, this would be less of a problem than it is now because…

3) Private dog ownership would be seriously curtailed (you’d have to have the time and space to look after it properly), and there would be a quota for cats so there weren’t too many in each neighbourhood.  Sounds harsh, but think how many more songbirds there would be.

4) Tomorrow wouldn’t start at midnight which is clearly the evening, not the morning.  Instead it would start at 6am, which, if you’ve stayed up all night, is about the time you start to think “oh no, it’s tomorrow!”

And finally,

5) There would be a law against starting Christmas advertising before November.

Don’t worry, I’m not thinking of going into politics anytime soon 😉