Scoop’s Views

Over the past few weeks while investors, investment bankers, and others, all whining that Wall Street was going to collapse. The federal government – pushed by President George W. Bush, as well as others in the administration, put together two bailout packages, with the latter with a $700 billion price tag, was eventually being approved by the House and Senate.

Some wise people I know, people I trust, were saying the past few weeks, while tough economic times were upon us, to chill out and wait. In fact, buy stocks while everyone was selling off and prices were low. The folks on the other side of the street, where it seemingly always rains, were talking doom, gloom, and stock market crashes.

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Beloit College’s Class of 2012 Mindset List has been released. It’s a list of things that incoming freshmen – most of whom were born in 1990 – are familiar with, but things they also don’t know or comprehend. For example, Harry Potter could very well be one of their classmates, the Class of 2012 Mindset List notes.

The list was started by Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, providing insight into the life and realities — as they exist — for incoming freshmen. It provides cultural touchstones that shape the lives of the incoming students, sometimes making it easier for a professor to understand why some students don’t grasp course content. one such example, for which I must be an exception, is this year’s item #20.

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