Tuesday, November 3, 2015

#307 / Stanford On The Moon



I attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, and I then attended Stanford Law School. Recently, in fact, I celebrated the 50th Reunion of my class, the Class of 1965. At least, I tried to celebrate!

Because of work-related commitments, I missed most of the reunion festivities, but I did wander around the campus during one of the days that the reunion was taking place, hoping (without any luck) to connect up with someone I might have known fifty years ago. Actually, my experience at the reunion was an excellent reminder of how my life went when I was a student. The picture above does not reflect the kind of experiences I had (more about the picture later). During my time at Stanford, including my time at law school, I pretty much wandered around by myself, hoping to connect up with knowledge and other people. I enjoyed the experience, but I didn't always have a lot of success in either of those endeavors.

At any rate, I do keep in touch with my alma mater, at least to some degree, but I am critical of its recent transformation into a kind of educational subsidiary of the Silicon Valley high-tech establishment. In August, on this Two Worlds blog, I noted, apropos my relationship with Stanford, that "Where I'm From Is No Longer Where I'm At."

And where Stanford is going is definitely not where I am heading! As I mentioned in my posting yesterday, I tend to think that we should all focus on what we should be doing on Planet Earth. Stanford, however, has a different  idea.

I thought it was a joke, when I first saw the email, but I am now persuaded it's not. Click the link to learn about Stanford On The Moon.

Send your kids, or grandkids to college. On the moon! Graduate seminars on Mars (I'm sure).

As for the picture at the top of this posting, I often find images to accompany my comments by using the Google Images tool, and typing in the title of my comment. What comes up is sometimes surprising. In this case, a search for images related to "Stanford On The Moon" produced the image above. It illustrates the Stanford "Full Moon" tradition, in which kisses are exchanged on the Stanford Quad during each Full Moon.

You know, I was on campus for almost eight years. The picture doesn't lie, I am confident. But that was not (unfortunately) my experience!

I don't think that will be the experience of those who participate in the effort to put "Stanford On The Moon," either.

Earthy is Earthly. Stay home for your kiss!


Image Credit:
http://web.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/02/an_insiders_guide_for_outsider_1.html

1 comment:

  1. Gary, you seem to have misunderstood that webpage. It doesn't talk about a plan to send kids to college on the moon. It talks about enabling "operators on Earth to guide the activities of robots on the Moon."

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