Extremely interesting Geological Research has resumed

"Sam wonders if we'll ever be published in journals. The great research never truly ends: wiser words were never spoken by an undergraduate."

Does a link from the Izzie journal count?
Yesssss. Those wickedly wonderful geology students continue their adventures in
The Field Notebooks of the Ring

Oh and more Ring things. Izzie has been peeking in her Subjunctive Spyscope and found Ring Things beyond her wildest dreams.
(Iz particularly likes the serpentine Hofstadter Ring and the two big long and very tasty Dr Seuss pies)

Iconoclastic Izzie

Izzie has had a few adventures today. With the best of intentions, Iz is getting an early start in reinforcing those long dormant domestic tendencies. No one could ever accuse Izzie of being a spare rib from Stepford. But finally bit the bullet and got around to defrosting that 1950's fridge. The seal is getting a bit old and crumbly and really needs to be replaced but it may end up costing more to do that than the fridge cost to buy in the first place. Iz keeps intending to ring and even has the Fridge Seal magnet stuck on the Fridge door. But making phone calls has become something of a ritual that tends to be forgotten as too much hassle since getting rid of that landline last year.

Next step will be more tidying up bits of paper and books and tackling that nasty tax return.
But the main event of the day was this evening's class with the Goblins. Izzie was in the Abacus computer lab near the library and should have left at 5.15 in order to get to her 5.30 class in time. But Iz got carried away with the adventures of a certain bunch of geology undergraduates on a rather interesting field trip and did not leave until about 5.25 or so. It was raining and miserable and for some inexplicable reason - the classroom for this 'ethics in business' unit was nowhere near the Min of Fin but rather as far away from it as it is possible to be and still remain on the campus - almost as if they were afraid of getting contaminated.
Iz finally arrives at building 501 five minutes late but it looked like lots of other folks got equally as lost. Izzie also suddenly realized that she had found the location of the mysterious third Abacus computer lab which was on the ground floor of this very building and unlike the other two - actually has toilets where you don't have to leave the secured section to access. Izzie hates having to swipe her ID card all the time. Seems that not many folks know of this place at all. It is virtually empty. Next week, will be able to come straight here and potter online and then get the lift upstairs without worrying about being wet or late like today.

It certainly got off to a promising start. We began with an Alain de Boitton video about Socrates. Iz did think it was a bit silly having him lurking around the streets of Athens in imitation of his idol - approaching people and asking stuff like "What is the meaning of life?" and "What is justice?" in English as if it's the most natural thing in the world that Athenians all speak English. In fairness, he did hang around a lot of touristy looking spots and was able to ask such questions in French to the French speaking tourists that he found.

The two lecturers then introduced themselves and got to asking what we thought of the video and stuff and what we thought were the most important points. When they got on to the topic of logic - Iz couldn't resist asking about the logic of charging law subject prices for a unit run by the School of Management. They were not particularly interested in answering that one and just as evasive as the bureaucrats behind the desks last week.

The assigned essay for the unit asks among other things if the term "business ethics' is an oxymoron. They asked what an oxymoron is and for any examples. Iz was ever so glad to oblige - 'a contradiction in terms' and gave as an example as well as the usual well worn 'military intelligence', "John Howard and the truth"
Then there was a whole bunch of famous quotes on the first few pages of the unit outline. Iz got asked about "Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?" which like most of the Latin quotations did not have a translation. They really were rather surprized that she had not only heard of it before but also knew what it meant.

They got various folks to read out some of the Latin sayings and got great delight in correcting their mispronunciations and giving the general impression that the standard of education has slipped immensely since Latin got taken off the curriculum.
The one that really peeved the Izzie was their comments concerning "Fiat justitia, et ruant coeli" which goes something along the lines of "Let justice prevail, even if the sky is falling down" which they said meant that justice should be observed at all costs, no matter what the circumstances. Izzie adds "Yesss. Like in Guantanamo Bay"
They replied - "Oh you are trying to provoke us. This is supposed to be about ethics, not politics" and made some other comment implying that they believe that what is happening in Guantanamo Bay is in the interests of maintaining justice.
Iz was just so so flabbergasted that she was lost for words and is wondering if these two just happen to be graduates of the Cornelius Fudge School of Ethics.
As far as Izzie is concerned, politics has everything to do with ethics - especially where the abuse of power is concerned.

It is quite surprising - not sure if it's because folks are shy or simply haven't heard of most of these proverbs that so few people seemed to know anything about those quotes or the people who made them like Cicero, Jeremy Bentham, St Augustine, Socrates or even the more recent Henry David Thoreau.
I guess a lot of so called general knowledge is not so general anymore. But this looks like it's going to be a fun class and will be a chance to meet folks interested in talking about the meaning of life and stuff. It will also be an opportunity to suss out the two lecturers to see what makes them tick. In spite of talking about the virtues of Socrates - question everything, don't take some one else's word for anything just because they have authority and don't follow the crowd etc etc - they do seem to have some old fashioned "The government always knows best" attitudes.
But anyone who considers Alain de Boitton videos to be educational and useful cannot be too bad after all.
The last phrase on the list of important terms along with 'corporate social responsibility','organizational values', 'utilitarianism' and 'universalism' is another of their Latin favorites "Primum non nocere" which they want us to find out for next week among other things.
Iz figured the first bit was well "First no something or other" but did not know what on earth 'nocere' could possibly be. But Iz consulted the all knowing Oracle of Google to find out that it was none other than the Hippocratic Oath "First do no harm"

So the next few weeks activities will include finding lots of newspaper articles about unethical behaviour in business (or even ethical behaviour - but that may prove to be too challenging) and writing critical evaluations of the aforementioned articles. Any links to the evil doings of the Litigious Bastard and the darkest deeds of Microshaft will be most appreciated. ;)
Izzie also has to do a five minute speech on Friday 13th for that public speaking group - on the topic of "I get the point" and remains totally uninspired at present.