tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16612221.post2768478798206917139..comments2024-03-19T03:14:04.172-04:00Comments on Rabett Run: Admins for the win. But at a cost....EliRabetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07957002964638398767noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16612221.post-86891502507334451672016-02-28T15:51:19.855-05:002016-02-28T15:51:19.855-05:00There's what may be a useful example in progre...There's what may be a useful example in progress; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin, currently protected and so under discussion.William M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16612221.post-30789746644821668832016-02-27T06:45:03.399-05:002016-02-27T06:45:03.399-05:00Hank, an intriguing quote indeed.
And it seems to...Hank, an intriguing quote indeed.<br /><br />And it seems to be reflected in the political milieux of everything from responding to climate change to choosing presidential candidates.<br /><br />We truly are a mess of differential adaptations.Bernard J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16299073166371273808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16612221.post-21889346615113333992016-02-27T00:54:58.095-05:002016-02-27T00:54:58.095-05:00Alas, Wikipedia is for readers.
Spider Robinson, ...Alas, Wikipedia is for readers.<br /><br />Spider Robinson, in a speech/essay titled "Seduction of the Ignorant" a while back, pointed out a problem:<br /><br />----excerpt follows------<br /><br />John D. MacDonald, in an essay he wrote for the Library of Congress just before his death, "Reading for Survival," put his finger on the problem: the complex code-system we call literacy--indeed, the very neural wiring that allows it--has existed for only the latest few heartbeats in the long history of human evolution. <br /><br />In competing with television and cinema and video games, books are competing with a system of information acquisition that predates them by several million years. <br /><br />Literacy is a very hard skill to acquire, and once acquired it brings endless heartache--for the more you read, the more you learn of life's intimidating complexity and confusion. But anyone who can learn to grunt is bright enough to watch TV ....<br /><br />Literacy made its greatest inroads when it was the best escape possible from a world defined by the narrow parameters of a family farm or a small village, the only opening onto a larger and more interesting world. But the "mind's eye" has only been evolving for thousands of years, whereas the body's eye has been perfected for millions of them....<br /><br />Writing still remains the unchallenged best way--indeed, nearly the only way except for mathematics--to express a complicated thought .... and it seems clear that this is precisely one of its disadvantages from the consumers' point of view. Plainly, recent generations of humans have begun to declare, voting with their eyes, that literacy is not worth the bother.<br /><br />-----end excerpt-------<br /><br />para. breaks added for online readability<br />Hank Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07521410755553979665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16612221.post-24555203840002806432016-02-26T20:53:20.749-05:002016-02-26T20:53:20.749-05:00Wikipedia does have this problem:
http://arstechn...Wikipedia does have this problem:<br /><br />http://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/12/editorial-wikipedia-fails-as-an-encyclopedia-to-sciences-detriment/<br /><br />"One problem with all of these (Wiki science articles) is that they're structured in a way that requires you to already have advanced knowledge of a topic in order to understand nearly anything on the page. In other words, they're probably only useful for people who would never have to read them anyway."<br />Pete Dunkelberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08555454286295936740noreply@blogger.com