Beloit College compiles list of freshman cultural touchstones

Beloit College in Wisconsin has published its yearly Mindset List since 1998.

The authors call the list "a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation," which "provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college."

Among Beloit’s 75 observations about the mindset of the class of 2014:

• DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
• Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
• Czechoslovakia has never existed.
• There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.
• Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
• They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
• Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.