Avenue Odd

If you were a man walking across the campus of Florida State University in 1978, an attractive young woman might have approached you and said these exact words: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?”

If you were that man, you probably would have thought that you had just gotten incredibly lucky. But not really. You were actually an unwitting subject in an experiment designed by the psychologist Russell Clark.

Clark had persuaded the students of his social psychology class to help him find out which gender, in a real-life situation, would be more receptive to a sexual offer from a stranger. The only way to find out, he figured, was to actually get out there and see what would happen. So young men and women from his class fanned out across campus and began propositioning strangers.

The results weren’t very surprising. Seventy-five percent of guys were happy to oblige an attractive female stranger (and those who said no typically offered an excuse such as, “I’m married”). But not a single woman accepted the identical offer of an attractive male. In fact, most of them demanded the guy leave her alone.

At first the psychological community dismissed Clark’s experiment as a trivial stunt, but gradually his experiment gained first acceptance, and then praise for how dramatically it revealed the differing sexual attitudes of men and women. Today it’s considered a classic. But why men and women display such different attitudes remains as hotly debated as ever.

Year upon year we strive towards so-called sexual equality. Can such an ideal equilibrium even exist?

 The experience of reading is one that is unique to the reader himself. Immersing in a world unknown, exploring ideas never thought up of before, or just reading for nostalgia, reading is, above all, a pleasure.

Reading a book, that is.

"There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away, nor any coursers like a page of prancing poetry."
-Emily Dickenson

Until recently, whenever we mention reading it has almost always been reading a book, but something has changed this. The electronic book reader. While it is not widely available globally, its use slowly but surely spread.

But what good is a book if it cannot be flipped, stacked on your living room table, or shelved away to collect some dust until you next pick it up and enjoy it again? Someone once said "A book is like a present you can open over and over again". True, that.

A book(or magazine) is more than just its literary content. Its colour, shape and even smell, makes it unique. What it tells of the reader is another attribute that the electronic book reader most definitely cannot replace. A man reading Hugo's Les Miserables looks to be a cultured one, the same man reading Hugo's Les Miserables on an electronic book reader looks (to me) more like a geek than anything else. (if he was reading a copy of Playboy, however, it is preferable that it be done on the electronic book reader, so I guess it does have some plus points.. but I digress.)

Books however small, have a sculptural presence and invariably become little islands of interest. The little mound of books stacked in the loo gives a certain insight into the thoughts and concerns of a person. What books are strewn about on the coffee table have the same effect - people notice books. Books, as any visitor to a civilised house knows, do furnish a room. Books never look untidy, even when piled in tumbling stacks.

Imagine taking a stroll about Harvard, and stumbling upon its massive library filled with books of all disciplines looming above. Impressive, isn't it? Now, replace the tomes with these electronic book readers.. They just do not have the same visual effect, especially if their batteries are long dead.

There is something luxurious, even sensual about the book that the electronic book reader can never attain. Antique tomes have a certain allure that appeals the senses and intellect. Don't know about you but in my case antique technology generally find their way into rubbish dumps (or recycling plants etc. what have you).

As long as Man has the need to narrate his knowledge, the book - the one that uses no batteries and are cheap to produce and can last for ages and ages - will transcend into immortality.

PICTURE TAKEN FROM FLICKR.COM. UPLOADED ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2008 BY Roberto69 

Yes, yes.. I know this is OLD and crummy. Evolution vs. Creationism aka Intelligent Design.

Evolution: From single cell organisms, creatures on earth took different evolutionary paths through processes of natural selection.It all began with the Big Bang. Extinction happens to species that "go down the path to a dead end". It all sounds very logical. Though one question remains, what caused the Big Bang(personally the burning question for me is: are we really all made of stardust?!??!)? Also, even if there is a scientific theory to that (there are many put forward by physicists and astrologers), how did such a process cause life?

Creationism aka Intelligent Design: A supreme being created each and every creature. It sounds like an "easy-way-out" for something that could not be explained by many early "thinkers". Point to note, in many holy scriptures that cite creationism and intelligent design, there are thousands of species of animals that are not mentioned. For example, in the Bible, there was no mention of a creature that resembles a Kangaroo, and yet, there they are getting run over on the expressways of Australia today! This can be attributed to geographical positioning. Since the author(s) of the Bible probably never got a chance to cross the ocean to reach the continent of Australia, they never got to record it and send it into Noah's Ark, but yet.. THERE THEY ARE! This is but one of the many flaws of the argument for Intelligent Design, and allows for rampant skeptism from the scientific field.

While thinking it through, it occurred to me that while evolution seems very logical to me, with all its digestible, tangible evidence; To a person who believes in a God and his supreme power, Creationism actually has logical, empirical evidence - God created us.

The Big Bang theory left me wondering though, so what caused the big bang?

So conclusion for me, an Intelligent Designer CREATED the highly Intelligent Big Bang that will then go on a process of evolution, and what we have now is only part of a timeline.

In short, God created the big bang 3 billion years ago and decided to take a vacation for 500billion years. Now that, my friends, is remarkably effective management.

Do drop a comment on your thoughts, I'm interested to know what others think of such a widely debated issue.

I'm very inclined to say one thing though, Science cannot answer everything. Ask a scientist why are leaves of plants green, and he will tell you that its pigmentation of chlorophyll that plants use in photosynthesis. That is a scientifically accurate answer that has empirical evidence, yet it does not answer the question of purpose or meaning. Purpose and meaning are probably the most elusive of all answers Man seek, answers that Science alone cannot provide. Never mind if God created us or we evolved our superior intelligence - our expansive mind that continually seeks answers is a tool, and Science(addressing quantitative and evident issues) and Spirituality(to address issues of purpose and meaning) merely means to an end(answers). However much they might conflict, they will co-exist. Forever.

*PICTURE WAS UPLOADED BY iuhoaix ON FLICKR.