Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Sometimes, Basic Skepticism Isn’t Enough

When I was first exposed to the Internet, I had already had exposure to BBSes, mailing lists, and more. Those ARCHIE, VERONICA and GOPHER searches offered me amazing tools to dig into academic and other resources for information and just knocked my socks off.

So, I’ve always viewed the Internet primarily as a research tool. When doing research on any academic topic, the general procedure, back in those long ago days of yore when colleges and universities were repositories of knowledge and literacy, and training grounds for critical thinking, involved a LOT of sifting and winnowing, comparison of purported facts, sources and documentation, and the eventual selection of most reliable sources and facts.

I guess I just unconsciously and tenaciously hung onto the misconception that most–or at least many–folks treated presentations of information on the Internet that way for some time, but slowly I began to realize that–by far–most folks just turn to “information” received from Internet organs for confirmation of their biases, not for real information.

And then I woke up, looked around me and realized that the relationship between most folks and (most) information has been that way all along, and getting even more so as time has passed.

Sad. Real stories are much more powerful than fiction, but ready acceptance of lies by lazy, bigoted, ignorant folks seems to be more powerful still.

Discouraging.

Along with the Internet being used as a disinformation organ by so many, in similar manner to the way the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind uses TV, radio, movies, newspapers and magazines to spread propaganda and plain bald-faced lies, the schools have been churning out both illiterates and a-literates at an alarming rate, “products” who lack even the basic tools to see that they are willing, even complicit, victims of the Dunning-Kruger Effect who think they are competent to discern truth from lies, fact from fiction, etc. . . but are not.

Tired of all the stupidity passing itself off as punditry (and being lapped up by the sheeple). Tired of social media devolving, as such things do, into nothing but stupid repetitions of the latest fantasies or silly “memes” that are little but propaganda for the a-literate.

Just tired, period, I guess.

Maybe I’ll take a nap.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to trust Internet sources to be untrustworthy until they demonstrate their material is reliable.

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Almost heaven. . .

. . . but not West Virginia.

(slightly) Early lunch. Sitting back with a nearly perfect grilled cheese sandwich (on rye bread w/sautéed onion), some tomato slices, corn salsa and chips.

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*sigh* Is It Just Me?

While reading my pdf copy of Korsybski’s “Science and Sanity,” I found myself wanting to correct minor errors of punctuation, probably introduced by the conversion from hardcopy and not caught by the line editor. The text itself seems perfectly logical–if dense and sometimes even obscurantist (though I am assured that is by design)–and without any obvious errors. It’s just that periods in the middle of sentences irritate me.

Or. . . did Korzybski do that intentionally for that reason? Just to thump that bone on folks like me? I’d not put it past him. . . *heh*

BTW, naturally each chapter in the pdf copy is separately password protected (because the copy I have is available only in discrete chapters), so I can’t correct them w/o cracking the password (probably doable with the tools I have on hand or can access), but that’s just too much like work. *heh*

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Well, Glad That’s Settled. (I hope. . . )

Watching a Holmes rerun–actually a pretty “not all that bad” show. (The “Mary Watson, Assassin” episode) Turned to my Wonder Woman and asked her if she had been an assassin all throughout our married life. Glad she said, “no,” (though with a sly smile; what does that mean? *heh*), cos that would’ve required Grand Master level dissimulation. . . 😉

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We Need More “Assisted Living Facilities”

But of different classes.

I think the time has come to establish Assisted Computing Facilities for people who are too stupid to own or operate computers, but who nevertheless own or want to operate them, to live in.

“Here, dearie; let me make that mouse click for you.”

And then, of course, it is long past time to establish Assisted English Facilities for self-made morons who butcher both spoken and written English to live in. ( Yeh, I’m looking at 80% plus of people on social media, bloggers, published authors and their editors, etc.). It’s a HUGE market. Every time some self-made moron butchered the English language in speech or text, that moron would have his own “editor” to slap him on the knuckles with a ruler and berate him with a correction. The morons would never learn, of course, but the individual “editors” would at least enjoy themselves.

The problem *sigh* with the Assisted English Facilities would be finding enough people who are actually literate in English. Oh, well.

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It’s. . . the little things

1981-1989 was consumed by work. I paid attention to “news” only whenever it had strictly local or serious national import, so I missed ALL details surrounding news of a serial killer’s apprehension in 1988–an event that might have been interesting to me. . . had I caught a few pieces of information–because it wasn’t of local or national importance. Yeh, yeh, it was news, but not really in any way important except to the community where it happened. (Network–and now cable–“news” manufactures national “importance” to local stories all the time, but it’s a fake “importance”.)

What was interesting to me, years later when I learned about details, is that the guy started his killing two years after I had moved from the area where he was operating. “The area”? I once lived four blocks from the house where the guy lived and killed, just barely out of the “good part of the ghetto” (as it was often referred to by its denizens). When we (my Wonder Woman, our daughter and I) moved from the area, we were living in the “good part of the ghetto,” five blocks away from the (future) “kill house” and working (my Wonder Woman and I; our daughter was not yet a year old *heh*) three blocks from where the guy ended up killing six men.

Missed it by that much.

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A Reader’s POV

I read a lot of books, by most folks’ measures. In the last few years, the mix has skewed more strongly toward fiction, partly as a result of reading so many articles and blog posts online–a real mixed bag of (mostly) non-fiction. I do still read non-fiction books, though, although the mix there is tending more toward DIY books of various kinds, now, with fewer and fewer sci-tech, philosophy, history, and suchlike.

How many is “a lot”? Generally more than one/day, a little more than twice as many as the average American reads each year,* according to some, but nothing to brag about. The only reason I say as much is that I think–perhaps–I have some sort of feel about what’s being published nowadays, both from “traditional” publishing and “indie” publishing, and I have to say, it’s mostly crap.

You read that right. I read more than a book a day, but I start and “circular file” at least 2 more that aren’t worth my time. And what makes them not worth my time?

  • jejune plots, characters, dialog, and narration that could be better done by the average lobotomized fifth grader
  • execrable English: everything from words misused (MANY of them!) to grammar apparently straight from a reference titled, “Stupid English for Stupid People”
  • an insulting lack of homework/research done and overall dumbfounding ignorance about topics keyed to plot or characterization (example: when a writer doesn’t know the difference between a semi-automatic firearm and a revolver but is writing a character whose weapons proficiency is key, it’s insulting)
  • baffling, completely, totally and absolutely stupid lack of internal agreement: Hey! That truck the character is now driving was a mini-van on the previous page!

And that’s just considering the fiction. On non-fiction, consider instructions in a DIY book to do things on a project in a way that WILL NOT WORK, CANNOT WORK, ARE COMPLETELY STUPID. Insulting the reader or targeting stupid people as the writer’s intended market? Either way, crap.

And no, let me repeat: these issues are not limited to “indie” books. The standards for both text and editing in books being published–by whatever means–is in the toilet nowadays.

But. . . of the books I give a shot at my eye time, one in three is still worth reading, so there’s that. *sigh*

Still, that’s slightly better than the one in five or six links to new (to me) voices on the Internet that are worth reading. That’s ~16%-20% of the links I follow from articles, searches, etc. Not bad, really, when talking about the interwebs. So, why I expect better from published (by whatever means) books? Because these writers expect to be paid for their writing. If they’re going to be paid, they ought to make sure they have the chops to write well and they ought to do their homework and PAY FOR LITERATE copy editing and line editing, since few writers are capable of performing those tasks themselves. (I have read advance reader copies–pre-editing–from a few writers that are remarkably clean, well-edited already by the writers, but such writers are few and far between.)

Note to writers: LEARN how to write. If you want to write in English, LEARN THE LANGUAGE. No, growing up speaking it doesn’t count. READ a LOT of well-written text. Concentrate on writers who can really write. No, not writers who write like you do. (In another recent post, I suggested a couple of writers whose command of English exceeded that of 99% of writers today. That sort of writer.) From there, proceed to writer who really challenge you, but STAY AWAY FROM SUCKITUDINOUS FICTION! After a few years focused on well-written text, then try writing again. Next: Find editors/proofreaders outside your circle of friends and acquaintances, editors/proofreaders who are more literate, better-read than you are. Pay them what they’re worth to fix your crap.

That might make an otherwise bad piece of dreck worth reading, IF you do the rest of your homework and either have an interesting story to tell or a useful skill to impart.

Maybe.

One of the funniest/stupidest things I’ve seen in a recent “slush pile reject” was a repeated misuse of “ridden,” as in “the bullet-ridden car” referring to a car that had been thoroughly riddled with bullets. A sure sign of an a-literate writer whose exceptionally weak verbal vocabulary exceeds that of his reading vocabulary. The rest of the thing wasn’t any better, but I did waste 20 minutes on it, just to be as fair as possible.

*Excluding those who claim to have read no books, the average read (by those who have read any books at all) is generally reported as ~7. Oh, no reference/link? Use your search-fu, Grasshopper. 😉

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“Glamping”

“Weird portmanteau,” thought I. Then I thought of family “camping” vacations from my childhood (1950s). I suppose those were pretty “glamp.” *heh*

The seven (or nine, of my paternal grandparents were along, as in one of the camping trips) of us would pile in a station wagon, packed to the roof–and beyond!–with people and possessions/supplies–and pulling a trailer built by my grandfather, full of large canvas tent, campstove, lanterns, fuel, sleeping bags, food, tools and other supplies to last seven (or nine) people for a couple of weeks.

Grandmother handled most (no, all–she wasn’t much of a sharer in the kitchen, inside or out) if she were along. Otherwise, mother did most of the cooking with one or more of us kids helping. The white gas Coleman stove was used for most cooking, but when the camp stove was not needed, cooking was sometimes over a real camp fire. Either my dad or grandfather directed camp setup and teardown/packing. Fishing poles and tackle boxes (where use was allowed) were always along.

Well, that was “glamping” for my family in the 50s. *shrugs* Seemed pretty luxurious at the time, and I suppose it still is.

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Irony? Tragedy?

Yes, both.

Crane Collapse in Mecca

The tragic thing is that workers were killed, and the population of genuine workers in Saudi Arabia is comprised largely of foreigners, many of whom are, de facto, slaves. (Imports from poverty-stricken third world countries who have had their papers seized and are stranded and forced to work or just. . . die).

The deaths of any such would truly be a tragedy.

Were any “non-slave” foreign workers killed, that too would be a tragedy.

Were any faithful Muslims killed, that would be. . . a mixed bag. Yes, tragedy that such might have died before repenting of their devotion to a Satanic hate cult and embracing the free gift of salvation in Christ. But still. . . devotees of a Satanic hate cult going to their just reward. . . OK, so I’m ambivalent.

Irony? Not only did this event happen on the anniversary of 9-11-2001 but the crane and the company using it are owned by Osama bin Laden’s father.

So, yes, tragedy and irony.

But. A part of me does wish this had happened during the culminating celebrations of the hajj, when the only ones injured would have been the most faithful devotees of The Butcher of Medina’s Satanic hate cult.