The evidence for frontal lobotomies was about as strong as the evidence for SSRIs. People were more docile, less agitated, easier-going. There was no apparent reason the procedure shouldn't be done. The brain matter was seen as unnecessary.

In the same way, modern doctors do not think it is necessary to identify the cause of depression, but treat it with mind-altering drug with all kinds of side-effects. Least of which is dependency on the drug.

I've known people who suffered severe depression and took SSRIs. It didn't help them in the long-run, it made them more depressed. A side-effect of SSRIs is suicidal tendencies.

I remember all the well-learned folks at adminmod said that you couldn't call RadiusDamage without rebuilding the HL DLL, well we found a way around it by adding a new dynamic link library that piggy-backed on the SDK. Neither of us had any knowledge of SMALL or the HL SDK when we started to develop HLFX, we just knew what we wanted and had the determination to do it. My accomplice "JB" had some rudimentary knowledge of C# but I was determined to use C++ to match the HL SDK. Apart from writing a simple "Hello World" app in BASIC, I had no knowledge of software development or porgramming. Nevertheless, after a few months we were able to release HLFX for Half-Life which hooked some core features for use with adminmod. It allowed for administrator manipulation of graphic elements of the game, such as RadiusScreenShake and RadiusDamage, which were normally tied to specific events, we freed them up for use in scripts. With the additional help of SMALL scriptor Luke S. we were able to develop some commands that demonstrated the new features; hlfx_timebomb would cause the player to become a timebomb, set to explode in number of seconds. Once the player exploded all nearby players would sustain RadiusDamage and their screens would shake relative to their distance from the blasts epicenter.

All of this was said to be impossible by the learned coders that frequented the adminmod and HLSDK forums. We made it work through sheer determination. However, due to unforseen and unrelated circumstances, I wasn't able to provide support for HLFX and it quickly disappeared. I managed to salvage a copy of the code from an abandonware site. A new mod sprung up that took the name "HLFX", so there is yet another one that is not the one we built.

I had a really bad Cisco Certfied Network Associate (CCNA) and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) instructor. He wasn't even certified himself, but was going through certification with the class he was teaching. He got a bug up his butt about people 'hacking' the school's network and put Tracert, Ping and other ports on lock-down, which also meant we couldn't gain any practical experience. Before he took over the course we had a highly respectable instructor who equiped us with half a dozen Cisco switches and routers to get practical experience with configuring different routing tables and editting registry values. When the new instructor took over, all that equipment went mysteriously missing.

Nevertheless, I still got 98% on the exams. Three of us achieved 98th percentile or higher, myself, my friend John and my brother. The three of us really wanted to know how computer networks worked, and we spent a considerable amount of free time in additional study, practice and dialog. The majority of the class appeared to be having a free lunch, they'd been admitted to the course by a government program aimed at establishing wayward youth, pretty much all of them failed. A good instructor, and government handouts are no substitute for the desire to know.

The learning process is catalysed by curiosity (And stress). There is sufficient neuroscientific support for this.

I heard this is achieved using deductive reasoning;

A man runs into an old friend and the old friend says "Hey, haven't seen you in a long time, what have you been up to."

The man says "I've been studying deductive reasoning. You know what that is?

The friend says "No, please explain it to me."

The man says: "Ok, here, I noticed you were in the hardware store looking at lawn-mowers. To be a man who needs a lawn-mower, you must own your own house and have a fair-sized lawn to go with it."

The friend "You are right, wow, cool."

The man says "See, but to have a lawn that large you'd probably have to be married and have kids, right?"

The friend "Yea! Right! I have 2 kids and lovely wife at home."

The man "Well thats it, I figured it out using deductive reasoning."

The two depart and the friend runs into another long-lost classmate "Hey, I just saw Jim, he is doing great, he told me all about deductive reasoning."

Classmate "How does that work, explain it to me."

Friend "Well, let me ask you something, do you own a lawn-mower?"

Classmate "No, I don't"

Friend "Then you must be gay."

Actually "The Century of the Self" is about the mode of operation of the world in the 20th century, which narrowly focuses on self. "Torches of Freedom" are just one link in the chain.

Inherit the Wind - great film
Clarence Darrow - great man
Crime Its Cause and Treatment - great book by Clarence Darrow
Edward Bernays - sly man, nephew of Sigmund Freud
The Century of the Self - great documentary about Bernays and the "Torches of Freedom" campaign.

"A Bowl full of happiness": FATAL EXCEPTION ERROR

Cannot call object "Happiness" from class "Bowl"; no such object obtains in specified path. Suggest referencing a different link library.

Great defense mechanism against possession by ogling girls. To all the cute critters on the earth with no other defense; RUN!

He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. ~George Bernard Shaw

Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own. ~Seneca

Our hearts where they rocked our cradle,
Our love where we spent our toil,
And our faith, and our hope, and our honor,
We pledge to our native soil.
God gave all men all earth to love,
But since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all.
~Rudyard Kipling

That's because the range of acceptable responses is so slim that we fall into a routine of giving the same responses. It no doubt contributes to the "mental rigidity" neuroscientists link to early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

"This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence." - Alex

But if you just want the knowledge, that is easy enough to obtain without attending college/university. The degree, doesn't guarantee any knowledge for the obvious reasons.