RS 2 Fall 2012: Marijuanna and the EU

In the audio that I listened to I was very amazed at how many people enjoy smoking marijuana and how legal it is. I thought this audio was really interesting due to the fact that coffee shops were all about smoking and relaxing. I had no idea that this was going on in Europe. Another thing that I found interesting about this was that people would cross the boarder no problem to go to these smoke shops where smoking was legal. The mayor of Maastricht was getting a feeling about the people who were crossing the boarder as people who were lazy, who littered, and who didn’t know how to park so he wanted to put a change to this problem to try and “better” his town. Even though the mayor wanted to change how legal marijuana was he wasn’t totally against it. He made a law that only Dutch people could go into smoke shops but had to show there passport for identification to prove that they were from Holland. He also said that they had to sign a document and become a member of the smoke shop, which people were skeptical about and most of them didn’t do it. So coffee shops soon went out of business. The different between a coffee shop and say a cigar bar is one very obvious reason. Cigars are legal; marijuana is not in the US. But in comparison to both a cigar bar and a coffee shop is that they both have a massive variety of flavors, size, taste, etc.  in the coffee shops the marijuana was displayed like a buffet style, but since people stopped coming to the coffee shops the owner of it started putting the lids on the marijuana so it wouldn’t go bad because it wasn’t being sold. I found it interesting that tourists from around Europe would come to Maastricht to get high but now that the coffee shops are closing there are people like guanga boy who will sell you weed. And now after the law was passed, people have noticed that the town was a lot cleaner there was no littering and everyone was driving how they were suppose to. This was very interesting to me and made me want to discover more about this.

How to be a genius

1.     The main point of this article is that genius in itself does not create great works or accomplishment on a grade scale. It accepts that people are born with enriched abilities that vary from person to person. It does not suggest that if you work really hard you can achieve being a genius it simple says that those who achieved great things did so by increasing their natural abilities through hard work that it didn’t simply land in their laps due to their “gift”. The findings did surprise me because its true that many people want to win but don’t want to work hard to win. It’s not going to be handed to you no matter how smart you are.

2.     The author’s view of talent is that its something you have to work for something. Its not handed to you. His view on talent changed throughout his life because when he was younger his mother had told him that he was a genius so he ran with the idea, but later on in life he realized that he might have to out work other or else his writing would count for little. He also said at the end of the article “…how smart you are doesn’t mean jack, and that you have to work demonically regardless”, meaning you have to put in time to get what you want.

3.     Basically the characteristics are that success isn’t going to be handed to you no matter what your innate talents are. The characteristics that I found were in this article that were more important than innate talent are hand-eye coordination, perspiration, inspiration, supportive environments, and important mentors.

4.     Steve Hawking views those who boast about their IQs as being losers.

5.     I think the author said that hard work could either encourage you or overwhelm you because it simply true. Either you make up your mind to work hard for something that you really want and can deal with the work that’s comes with getting what you want, or you could be scared off by the amount of work that comes with getting what you want and dismiss the whole idea of success to being with.

6.     I think you assigned this reading because you are trying to show us that anyone can become a genius. Your not born with it, you don’t naturally have it, but you have to want it. And in order to want something you have to work hard to get it, and that what all of us in the class should do. Work hard to get where we want to be.