Date:12/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/12/stories/2007061202922200.htm

International

Heart triumphs over the head

NEW YORK MILLS: America's Greatest Thinker is not a famous philosopher, an award-winning mathematician or internationally known astrophysicist. He is a musician and arts administrator from Minneapolis, says this year's Great American Think-Off, in which ordinary people debate perplexing questions.

Joe Kaiser won the title and a gold medal on Saturday after the Think-Off audience decided he was most convincing when debating the question: "Which should you trust more — your head or your heart?"

Mr. Kaiser argued that a person should trust the heart more than the head. His friend and debate opponent, Episcopal priest Paul Allick of Burnsville, took the silver medal by arguing that one's head should be used in decision-making.

This is the 15th year of the competition at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Centre, a non-profit organisation dedicated to expanding the cultural and creative opportunities of rural Americans. New York Mills is a farming town of some 1,200 people in Minnesota, about 275 km northwest of Minneapolis.

Finalists were selected from a field of more than 530 people who submitted essays. All four finalists received $500 in prize money and an all-expenses paid trip to New York Mills. — AP