Engineering and critical thinking

Engineering is all about critical thinking. The whole purpose of engineering is to solve modern day problems with solutions that aren't necessarily "in the box." Therefore engineers are told to think critically about problems in order to develop a process to fix them.

The engineering curriculum certainly incorporates critical thinking in its class problems. The teachers here encourage students to compete to design the most effect project like a bridge out of newspaper and paperclips, or shoes that let people walk on water, or a Lego robot that can get through a maze the fastest. Engineering is one of the most intensive critical thinking careers out there, and I believe the curriculum incorporates the appropriate amount of this kind of thinking.

Thoughts on "A German Lesson: the Fallacy of One True Path" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Goldhagen may say that he is not declaring Benedict's "imperial certitude" to be as comparably horrible as the Nazis', but it is completely apparent that he distrusts Benedict and wishes others to do the same. This arcticle is dangerous in the way Goldhagen presents himself as an unbiased man simply talking about the new Pope, when really Goldhagen himself is the son of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldhagen). Clearly he has some biases yet he refused to alert his audience of this.

Goldhagen is attempting to plant seeds of doubt about the Pope while keeping himself safely hidden away from the spot light. Goldhagen should not be comparing Benedict to the Nazis when he has showed no interest in anything even remotely similar to Hitler's way of doing things. Of course Benedict would like the whole world to convert to Catholicism, but that does not mean he is going to kill people to get that way. That path of action would completely go against the values of Christianity which are precisely what the Pope stands for. Pope Benedict simply desires what every religiously devout leader wants: to share his truth which he believes is the Truth. He does not want people to convert so he can have power; he wants them to convert so they can be saved and have salvation. Hitler's drive was for power, and it is insulting to compare him to one of today's most honored religious figures.

Item needing improvement

College students are lazy; we all know that. Sure there are a few exceptions, but all would choose to make their lives easier if they had the option. Not having a bathroom or even a sink in their dorm rooms is a great annoyance, and the long walk to the bathroom gets difficult when too many bottles, brushes, and bags are involved. At the end of the day some people don’t even bother washing their face or brushing their teeth—it’s too much of an inconvenience.

I propose a way to lighten the load a student must carry to the bathroom. Perhaps it would be possible to make some kind of electrical or manual toothbrush in which the toothpaste was held inside of the handle of the brush. With the simple push of a button, the toothpaste could seep onto the brush in exactly the right amount and then close itself without the brusher having to do a thing. This way the student would not have to carry the tube of paste to the bathroom or worry about screwing on and off the tiresome cap which inevitably will get lost or dirty.

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