Cooler Dirt

As we often do on Foolosophy Friday, we’re going to start with a conundrum. Here are the basics;

1. You are a train conductor. One day you are happily moving along the tracks when you see something terrible ahead.  On the track you are on, two people are tied up and laying unconscious.  If you continue, they will die.
2. Luckily, there is a side track you can take.  Less than lucky is that on this track lies a single person, similarly tied up, unconscious and immobile.   If you switch to the other track, that person will die.
3. If you continue on the tracks, the two people will be killed. If you change tracks, the one person will be killed.  You can’t stop the train or do anything else to avoid hitting either the pair or the lone person.

Now the question is this:  What do you do? Do you go ahead and kill the two people, or do you change tracks and kill the one?

How do you decide? Should you decide on the basis of doing the least harm?  If so, you’ll probably change tracks.  Yes, you’ll kill someone, but you’ll save two lives.  If you continue without switching tracks, don’t you inflict more harm?

Does it change anything if the single person is conscious and can see you coming?  Or if instead of 2 people it is 100? Or they are children?   Why does that make a difference?

Think about this:  If you continue, you don’t have to change anything.  By acting you choose to do something, namely kill a person that otherwise would have been alive.  Are you a murderer because you chose to kill the one person?

These kind of hypotheticals are simplistic, but they aren’t designed to teach you what to do in these kinds of situations.  The question asks what we mean by morality, or more specifically, by the concept of the most good to the most people.  (Or the least harm to the least number of people.)   If you believe acting so as to bring about the most good for the most people, this kind of problem may arise.  But if you think choosing to take the life of someone is wrong, then in this situation at least, you will have to cause more harm than good.

Hmm.

(Photo courtesy jamesfischer’s flickr page through Creative Commons license. Thanks, james fischer!)

Foolosophy Friday blog, life

We changed our wordpress theme from Akon(designed by Terry Ng) to Inove (designed by MG12), which we found on the Wordpress site.   We really liked the Akon, but Inove has its upsides too.  Needless to say, we’ll be testing several different themes over the next few weeks as we find our audience, so any feedback you may have, oh loyal reader, will be much appreciated.

And in case you forgot, here is what the old (Akon) theme looked like:

Our Blog with the Akon theme

Uncategorized blog, wordpress theme

According to a recent website and related news stories, some people actually consider themselves real-life superheroes. And by real-life, we mean fake.

They don’t have powers, they haven’t been bitten by radioactive spiders, and they aren’t mutants. And though we don’t want to be accused of being anti-mutite (though in all fairness, those people do have their own school), we’re wondering what kind of person waks up one day and says “You know, a latex costume, helmet and cape sounds like something I want to integrate into my life.”

Not to overgeneralize, but here’s a brief list of the kinds of people we think are attracted to this…uh….job?

1. People in Need of Career Counseling: If you think fighting crime is something you want to do, perhaps you should consider a job in law enforcement. If you see crime as a problem and believe the solution is making a bright costume and coming up with a catchy name and or sidekick, you look at things very differently than most people.

2. People With Otherwise Dreary Jobs: Ever been to the Ren-Fest? We went once. ONCE! And we got the feeling that a lot of the really committed participants engage in this fantasy world creation for the simple reason that they don’t have much else going on in their life. Superhero? We don’t even want to know what is so lacking in your life you have to come up with something like that to take up the time.

3. Socially Mal-Adjusted: Okay, this one is probably pretty harsh, but we think it’s accurate. How many of the people who hang around comic book stores are, shall we say, less than socially acute? The vast majority of the people in this population are probably going to be hesitant when pursuing their passions turns into adopting a fantasy as their real life. But given the underlying population is probably on the lower end of the socially adept scale of things, what kind of people are the subset of those who take that next step and live their lives in that fantasy?

We know this post probably seems critical, but it’s not aimed at mockery. It’s a legitimate question to ask: What makes a person want to adopt what is, to the vast majority of people, a fantasy identity?

(Photo courtesy dougward’s Flickr page, license through Creative Commons. Thanks, dougward!)

Uncategorized blog, book, career, life

Don’t worry, our weekly Testing, Tuesday, Testing post isn’t going to be hard, and it’s not the kind of thing you need to study for. These tests are designed to get

“Designed?” You ask. Yes, but not by us. We rely upon people who actually know what they are talking about. We’ve scoured many of the internets (the blue one and red one mostly) to bring you the finest self-diagnostic/life-hacking/deep-thinking-type-thingy-with-the-attachment-and-the-thing-that-tells-time.

So, this weeks quiz is for everyone who smiles.

But it’s not what you think. We’re going to test whether or not you can detect a fake smile. You know what we’re talking about, don’t you? Have you ever known someone who’s smile just somehow seems odd? Or maybe a person who has the same smile on every picture you’ve ever seen them take?

According to research, a genuine smile is very different than a fake one. But, most people are not very good at telling the difference. How about you?

You can take the test for yourself. In this test, you’ll be shown short videos of several faces as they smile. You only get a very short time to see the smile, and you cannot repeat the video, so watch closely.

We know a relatively simple way to spot the fake smiles, but we’re not going to tell you until after you take the test. (Meaning on a late post.)

So take the test and let us know how you did. How good are you at spotting a fake smile? What are you looking for, specifically? Is it something in the overall demeanor, in the smile, in the face? Is it magic?

Good luck. And don’t worry if you don’t spot the fake ones. Once you learn how to spot the real smile, it is much easier.

(Photo courtesy Misterteacher’s Flickr page through Creative Commons license. Thanks, Misterteacher!)

Testing, Tuedsay, Testing blog, life, quiz, science, survey

Every so often, we come across a famous story that, for whatever reason, has become widespread and commonly believed, even though it is false. Such urban myths are often encountered, but not always understood. So, in an effort to broaden our grasp of the world, we present you with the Multi-Million Dollar Space Pen!

The story goes like this: In the heyday of the space race, NASA astronauts needed to be able to write in space. Unfortunately, the pens the astronauts had didn’t work in a weightless (zero-gravity) environment. So the space agency set about on a costly program that cost millions of dollars, eventually getting the famous space pen so the astronauts could write. In the meantime, the Soviet space agency came across the same problem. But they decided to use pencils.

This story was even told (without any hint that it was false) on the television show The West Wing. Unfortunately, the story is completely false. Not only did NASA not embark upon this program, but the inventor who created the pen out of his own efforts (Paul Fischer), ended up selling his product to every space agency in the world, including the Soviets (now Russia). Before his pen was introduced, both NASA and the Soviets used grease pencils and slate boards to write in space, as the threat of broken pencil lead or wood shavings in a weightless environment was too much of a problem.

The real story of the space pen is a great example of how an individual can invent a product for which there is a need. But, that story is overshadowed by the story of NASA embarking on its costly program.

Whenever we come across an urban myth like this, we often ask: Why was this story believed? Like any urban myth, lots of people often believe these stories, even though they are not true. Smart people, educated people. But why? What about this story makes it so believable?

We think there are several reasons, but we’ll let you come up with your own ideas before we tell you ours.

What do you think? Why are urban myths spread so easily, even when they are easily debunked. (For an absolutely superb myth debunking site, visit Snopes.com. )

(Photo courtesy Buglugs’s Flickr site, granted through Creative Commons license.   Thanks, Buglugs!)

Urban Legends blog

We’re always on the lookout for guest writers with interesting stuff to blog about.  Though we have some ongoing categories like; Foolosophy Friday, Urban Legends and Testing, Tuesday, Testing, we’re open to all kinds of topics, just as long as they will make for good conversation.  So if you have a good idea and want to write for us, send a message to:

writers@coolerdirt.com.

If pitching a blog story, please provide a history (and links if possible) to other blogs or publications for whom you’ve written.  You can also submit a writing sample, but only as inline text and NOT an attachment.  (Seriously.  NO ATTACHMENTS.)   The blog is aimed at people who want to have interesting conversations, or at least have something other than sports, movies or TV to talk about at the water cooler.   The range of topics is  fairly broad, but the posts have to be aimed at providing conversation starters or discussion topics.  The tone should be light and friendly, even if the topics are serious or potentially controversial.

Authors will be given a byline with a link to their own page or website.  All posts must be original, not previously published in print or online, and the author must own all intellectual property rights.  All posts published on the site belong to coolerdirt.com.

Uncategorized blog, blog job, classified, conversation, conversation starter, conversation starters, conversations, good conversation, writing

Every Friday, we’re going to post a brain teaser of sorts. We don’t want to go so far as to call what we do philosophy, but we are going to ask the kinds of questions you usually only ask when under the influence of substances that aren’t exactly legal. (Which, by the way, is the only reason we ever wanted to go to grad school.)

So, consider the following hypothetical situation.

1. Last night, and unbeknownst to you, a group of mad scientists snuck into your bedroom and removed your brain.
2. Fortunately for you, they didn’t leave you hanging. Instead of letting you die, these scientists placed your brain in a vat of super-awesome science liquid that keeps your brain alive. (Ever seen that Steve Martin movie, The Man with Two Brains? It’s kind of like that. Here’s a clip.)
3. Further, in all the places where the nerves of your brain connected with your body, they placed microscopic radio transmitters. These allow your brain to communicate with your body even if it is no longer there. So even though you believe your brain is still there, it is really in a jar somewhere in the dark lair of the evil scientists.

So, here is the question: Where are you?
Though your body is currently where you are, your brain is in the hideout. It could be millions of miles away on a distant planet. And everything you think, feel, see, taste and perceive are going on in that hideout. So are you in the hideout, or are you where you are now?

Here’s another question. What if your body is destroyed? Are you dead? You would no longer be able to perceive anything, but you could still think. You’d still have all your memories, still dream, still have desires.

We’ll let you think about that one for a while. What do you think? What do your friends think?

If this question asks anything, doesn’t it ask what it means when we identify ourselves?

In other words: Who, or what, makes you, you?

(Photo courtesy sirtrentalot’s Flickr page, rights granted through Creative Commons license. Thanks, sirtrentalot!)

Foolosophy Friday blog, brain, friends, philosophy, science

We’ve recently moved from the old blogger site to our own website with a new Wordpress layout.   We’ll be making a lot of changes over the next weeks, but we’re still going to continue adding our daily posts.

Feel free to contact us, leave comments and let us know what you think of the site.  We always love hearing from you.

Uncategorized blog, love