The way each of us see the world is influenced by  many different things. How you were raised, where and when are just some of them. The headline above is one of the statements that some professors at Beloit College in Wisconsin have applied to the incoming class of 2014. The incoming college freshman have experienced a very different world than many of us “slightly older” folks have.

For instance:

Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail

There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.

Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.

It’s a yearly and fascinating exercise that is designed to help the professors understand a little of how their new students see the world.  As this years Mindset posting says of the Class 0f 2014 “They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them.  A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of scholarship. They will discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line.”

Read the whole Beloit Mindset list here.

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Jacquie at the controls.

Just after landing at Nevada City.

I’ve chatted from time to time about my wife and her travels as a flight attendant with United Airlines. One listener, Bruce Bolla picked up on that and got in touch. Bruce works the “front office” on a United Airbus out of  SFO and also picked up on my love of flying. Flying a “bus” is his job, but for the shear fun of flying he has a “sports car”, a dazzling classic in blue and white. It’s a 4-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza and he and wife Karen took us on a little sightseeing and dinner trip to Nevada City on Tuesday the 10th. It’s always fun to get my hands on the controls of a “real” plane rather than my virtual Microsoft one. Here are a few pics from a sweet little tour of our golden state.

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Fun for four.

Flying north over Richmond.

Our Captain, Bruce at the wheel of his "sports car" in the sky

American psychologist Rollo May said “Depression is the inability to construct a future”. It also doesn’t leave you with much of a past either. There have been significant advances in pharmacology aimed at treating depression, but now there may be another, non medical fix. A newly published study from Mexico reports repeated listening to certain classical works — including one by Mozart — helps ease the debilitating symptoms of clinical depression. In a recent study participants from a Oaxaca clinic were divided into two groups. Half the group took part in a 30-minute weekly counseling session with a psychologist; the other half listened to a 50-minute program of classical music each day. Their recorded concert featured two baroque works (Bach’s Italian Concerto and a Concerto Grosso by his contemporary, Archangelo Corelli) and Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos. Each week, participants reported their levels of depression-related symptoms using a standard scale. By the fourth session there was more positive change from the music therapy group that the counseled group. Read the whole article here.

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