(1)
Why do withdrawals from one's check card or credit card occur at lightning speeds that would have been interpreted as witchcraft 400 years ago, but charge reversals take slightly longer than hand delivery by courier in the nineteenth century?
(2)
On what grounds can Time-Warner Cable (or any communications company) charge customers $75 for discontinuing service, even when no contract is being broken or changed? Especially since the disconnect can be done automatically hundreds of miles away--and, even so, the customers must personally lug the equipment to one of the company offices? Exactly what service is being paid for here?
(3)
Why is the assumption in the nature-versus-nurture debate almost always that individuals might have done something to change the nurture part? Really? I had a choice in what happened to me before the age of, let's say, seven?
(4)
If grades motivate students' desire to learn, why do students seek the less challenging courses in the interest of getting better grades--even though the more challenging course may have more of an impact on them--and why do I rarely see a student (less than one a year, in fact) who says she is doing fine in the course but simply would like to work on improving her writing or her knowledge of literature--and yet four or five times a week I see students who want to know how they can turn a D into a C or a C into a B--and in the majority of those cases, they want the answer to be something along the lines of washing my car on weekends, rather than making a greater effort to learn the material? This is motivation to learn?
