IT Insights Blog — Education

There's an old inspirational maxim that goes something like this: "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Such is the power of assonance ... to cause pithy inspirational adages to linger in memory. The power of the mind to believe things into existence is, well, less readily demonstrable. Science fiction authors and others have been conceiving technologies beyond the grasp of modern engineering for generations, after all.

Most of your who are a) reading these words, and b) live somewhere in Earth's northern hemisphere, have doubtless begun to take notice of the annual shift in the weather that occurs over the final two months of the year. Furnaces have been tuned up, clothing that provides additional warmth is out of the closet and circulating in the regular lineup, and stockpiles of such cold-weather essentials as Kleenex tissues, hot chocolate, and ice scrapers have been replenished.

One longstanding activity of many high schools and universities is to organize events that bring together students and working professionals. The general idea, in most instances, is for the students to interact, even just on a limited basis, with a real-world workplace environment. At universities, in particular, there is often an active recruitment component to such functions, with hiring managers and others getting a first-crack look at potential future employees.

Today is National Kick Butt Day, which is alleged to occur each calendar year on the second Monday in October. In 2018, National Kick Butt Day happens to also fall on the same day as a holiday created to honor the "discovery" of the Americas by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. We're not sure what to make of the convergence beyond the fact that Columbus has come in for a bit of a historical butt-kicking in recent years.

There's a new movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood that will arrive in theaters just two weeks before Christmas. Most people have certain expectations of Eastwood, who was an established movie action hero when the empty chair he scolded at the 2012 Republican National Convention was barely a footstool. Eastwood has gotten a little long in the tooth since the good old days, of course, and doesn't beat up quite as many bad guys as he used to.