Pinocchio Paradox

Awhile ago in class we talked about a paradox with Pinocchio's nose. I recently found a website with a statement claiming to refute this paradox and I found it quite interesting. I think it is slightly ridiculous but I liked the points it made all the same. Maybe you will like it too. Here is the link- http://www.dump.com/2010/02/13/pinocchio-paradox-solved/

Deformed Babies....

In response Julie's post. I think that designer babies are an interesting idea. I don't know how i would personally feel as a parent because there is so much to think about. On the one hand, I would think about probability and just having a kid the normal way, and i could be proud of my kid knowing that they are normal and not some test tube experiment thing. On the other hand, I would never want the possibility of having my child have diseases or things they wouldn't have to have. If i could make life easier for them, like if they were born without asthma, even though my whole family has it, i feel like that would be better. In English class last semester we had to read a book called "Thanking the monkey" by Karen Dawn. One of the chapters touches on the subject of breeding animals. It states that breeding some more aesthetically traits in dogs also has bad effects on the animals health. Pugs for example, are bred to have super cute scrunched up faces, but that makes it harder for them to breathe. I wonder if this effect would happen with designer babies?
I also feel like having the ability to create the kind of child you want takes some of the guess work and excitement out of life. Life isn't interesting if you know exactly how things are going to turn out all the time and you can plan every little thing. What is the point in living if we know what is to come every second of every day? if we know what our kids will look like and how they are going to live their lives? I know I'm taking an extreme approach to this, but something about this topic unsettles me a little.
question: If you had to choose between having a perfectly healthy child that looked awful and grotesquely deformed, or a beautiful child, who had a multitude of serious health conditions, which would you choose?

My dreams

In response to Yvonne's post on dreams. I like to have dreams because my dreams are always really elaborate and i have them almost every time I close my eyes. I personally believe that my dreams are nothing more then an extension of my imagination and that when i go to sleep my head just wants to tell me a good story. I need to be entertained while I'm sleeping so my body creates images solely based on the fact that I need something to look at while i sleep. I feel like without my dreams i wouldn't sleep as well. Sometimes how I feel during the day effects my dreams at night. Like if i just watched a scary movie and went to bed, i have nightmares. If i have a homework assignment due or something else i need to get done, I get it done in my dream. I never really analyze my dreams though. I don't want to take away from the feeling I get when i have them by further understanding them, if they even have meaning. Right now, I am happy with just having them and feeling content.
question: in what cases is it good to over analyze something and in what cases isn't it?

Love it or Leave it?

In response to Chelsea's blog question: Do you think that forcing our children to take art classes (as many elementary and high schools do) creates in them an appreciation of art, or does it cause them to resent it?
I think that appreciation of art stems from how you experience it. If you are in uncomfortable circumstances then your mind will relate art to those circumstances and not be as fond of it. For example; You are in a class room with a teacher that is absolutely unbearable and she teaches art. She screams at you constantly for messing up the assignments when all you want to do is learn. For most people, this experience would put them off from art. Basically I'm saying that in the context of school, liking art depends on the teacher you have. If you have a bad teacher, chances are you will grow up to dislike creating art.
I think in many cases, as long as the teacher has the willingness to teach the students and help in whatever way they can, the subject in question would be more enjoyable. Given that the teacher themselves know enough on the matter to teach it. I feel that way about a lot of things. In high school, I hated history because I didn't get along with the teacher. Then i got a different teacher who knew more and had more enthusiasm on the subject and now I love history.
Question; Do you agree that having a good teacher makes the subject more enjoyable?

Dreams

I am responding to Courtney's blog. Her question was whether anyone disagreed with her about her opinion of Bryan's question, which was" Bryan asked, "Do you think that finding meaning in your dreams would make a significant improvement in your life?".
I mostly agree with her. I think that dreams can have some importance but some are not important. I think that it doesn't matter what kind of dreams you have, but how your mind interprets them and what actions you take prior to the dreams. I agree that understanding your dreams can help you understand stress but there are other things that help you understand stress as well. As long as you realize you are stressed and take the necessary actions to be less stressed then you are changing your life for the better. I don't think that having dreams helps you significantly though. some people don't have dreams and their lives are fine. As far as dreams go, I think they are nice to have but that they aren't very useful.
question: would it make that much of a difference if no one ever dreamed again?

Spoiled children

This is in response to Austin's question "If all parents disciplined and didn't spoil their children then do you think that the world would have better appreciated people rather than a lot of spoiled, snotty and uncaring people?"
I think that if there weren't so many spoiled children in the world, we wouldn't appreciate the children that take the time to behave. Also, I think that saying that the world is full of spoiled, snotty, and uncaring people is false. I think that the world is generally good and that most of humanity wants to help their fellow man. I do think that children should be disciplined more because all children and people in general should have respect for their elders and peers in my opinion. I don't, however, think that an increase in disciplinary action upon children will necessarily improve appreciation for people as a whole.
Part of the reason i see this as a problem is because different children need to be spoken to different ways. There is not just one way to discipline someone. For some kids, yelling works, whereas others would just cry and be even less cooperative/productive than they originally were. I don't think many parents these days know how to deal with their children and so they take the easy way out and let them get away with more then they should. But at the same time, there are parents who do a good job. Even if there are kids that are spoiled, they still know what good is and they want to be good. They just haven't been taught how to achieve that yet. I think that part of the reason I perceive the world as generally good is because when I see someone do good i want to do good as well. Helping people is a good feeling and I know that I'm not the only one that feels that way. I think spoiled children act snotty sometimes because they have been raised to accept that people will spoil them when they act the way they do.
question: do you think that parental beliefs completely affect the behavior of the child and the way he/she will mature? or do you think that everyone is born with morals and they know the difference between right and wrong regardless of whether their parents practice it or not?