Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the human condition until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about mammalian intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort to harness the elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
-- Tim Starling
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:53:33 +1100, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the human condition until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about mammalian intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort to harness the elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
-- Tim Starling
Don't fret it much. I don't think there's ever been a student newspaper that wasn't filled with whining students.
-Justin
Justin . wrote:
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:53:33 +1100, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the human condition until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about mammalian intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort to harness the elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
-- Tim Starling
Don't fret it much. I don't think there's ever been a student newspaper that wasn't filled with whining students.
Yup, "college junior" pretty much sums it up. He's actually better than average, almost knows how to use four-syllable words (five syllables are for seniors).
:-)
I actually think "geekiness" is good for reputation - people using WP as reference want to know that there are armies of moles triplechecking every claim, not that a skateboarder occasionally passes by to reboot the server.
Stan
Stan Shebs wrote:
Yup, "college junior" pretty much sums it up. He's actually better than average, almost knows how to use four-syllable words (five syllables are for seniors).
He knows how to use a thesaurus, we have to give him credit for that. A dictionary is probably a bit much for him though. From WordNet:
sapient adj : acutely insightful and wise; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"; "observant and thoughtful, he was given to asking sagacious questions"; "a source of valuable insights and sapient advice to educators" [syn: perspicacious, sagacious]
So "barely-sapient" doesn't quite make sense, it's more like "barely clever" than "barely sentient", which is probably what he meant.
Justin wrote:
Don't fret it much. I don't think there's ever been a student newspaper that wasn't filled with whining students.
My tone wasn't clear in my first post. I'm not fretting, I think it's amusing. Just returning sarcasm with a bit of sarcasm of my own.
-- Tim Starling
Tim Starling wrote:
Stan Shebs wrote:
Yup, "college junior" pretty much sums it up. He's actually better than average, almost knows how to use four-syllable words (five syllables are for seniors).
He knows how to use a thesaurus, we have to give him credit for that. A dictionary is probably a bit much for him though. From WordNet:
sapient adj : acutely insightful and wise; "much too perspicacious to be taken in by such a spurious argument"; "observant and thoughtful, he was given to asking sagacious questions"; "a source of valuable insights and sapient advice to educators" [syn: perspicacious, sagacious]
So "barely-sapient" doesn't quite make sense, it's more like "barely clever" than "barely sentient", which is probably what he meant.
Hmmm! Sounds like a large segment of the population has been disqualified from membership in Homo sapiens. :-)
Ec
Tim Starling wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the human condition until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about mammalian intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort to harness the elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
The expression "depressingly successful" suggests a tinge of jealousy.
Later in the article he states: "The only drawback is that the content is just a tad skewed toward entries about hentai, Magic cards and KFC." Many a chicken found out only too late about the intentions of their friend Harlan from KFC.
Maybe he should learn Australian rules football, or at least rugby rather than that tame American excuse for football.
Ec
A frigging MEN. Ive never understood why these so called 'tough jocks' need to wear a metre worth of padding.
btw, the last paragraph is a bit confusing;
But on the less-than-bright side ... these really are the best and brightest of humanity. They've got DSL. And grammar. And encyclopedic, albeit utterly useless, depths of knowledge. It's horrible, but true: when ekOeOfhOpe and dArK_RaVeN and Sparky and Evercat are found rotting in their apartments, it will be their inferiors who have repopulated the earth in their own sweaty image. Ooh. Not so chipper anymore.
paz y amor, rjs
On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 15:32:09 -0800, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Tim Starling wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the human condition until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about mammalian intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort to harness the elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
The expression "depressingly successful" suggests a tinge of jealousy.
Later in the article he states: "The only drawback is that the content is just a tad skewed toward entries about hentai, Magic cards and KFC." Many a chicken found out only too late about the intentions of their friend Harlan from KFC.
Maybe he should learn Australian rules football, or at least rugby rather than that tame American excuse for football.
Ec
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Robin Shannon wrote:
A frigging MEN. Ive never understood why these so called 'tough jocks' need to wear a metre worth of padding.
btw, the last paragraph is a bit confusing;
But on the less-than-bright side ... these really are the best and brightest of humanity. They've got DSL. And grammar. And encyclopedic, albeit utterly useless, depths of knowledge. It's horrible, but true: when ekOeOfhOpe and dArK_RaVeN and Sparky and Evercat are found rotting in their apartments, it will be their inferiors who have repopulated the earth in their own sweaty image. Ooh. Not so chipper anymore.
In case you were wondering what "chipper" means, urbandictionary.com gives this insightful definition:
3. Chipper
Some weird mood choice on LiveJournal that nobody really understands until they look it up.
Hmm, how am I feeling today? ...Chipper...? Whatthefuck is Chipper? Haha oh well it sounds cool I'ma choose that.
...That's right I just said "I'ma". Source: Sarah G, Nov 26, 2004
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:53:33 +1100 Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
"I never fully understood the sheer awfulness of the
human condition
until last Tuesday. In the course of a debate about
mammalian
intelligence, my friend Harlan and I discovered an
online encyclopedia
called Wikipedia.org, a depressingly successful effort
to harness the
elusive Power of Loser."
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
-- Tim Starling we are all createwd differently by GOD so one man`s
terrible opinion of you should not bother you.just ignore him.
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
_____________________________________________________________________ For super low premiums, click here http://www.dialdirect.co.za/quote
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
I say with a fair degree of certainty that I have personally met more wikipedians than any other person.
And I have yet to meet people who fit the descriptions he gives in the article. Wikipedians are really smart people typically, but also very friendly and outgoing. Because of the essentially social nature of how we work together, success in the wikipedia community depends on having good social skills as well as having intelligence
(Of course I suppose the more shy among us may tend to avoid the meetups. People can be socially skillful online, but still shy about coming out to meet people. For those who feel this way, I recommend to try it sometime, you'll find out that you like them as much in person as you do online. :-))
--Jimbo
On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 01:53:33 +1100, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Mathias Schindler wrote:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/12/02/41ae87066c10f
That's brilliant, it's a little insight into the mind of a vandal. He's calling us all losers for trying to construct something of value. He attacks the site just out of revulsion for the effort we put in. I guess if we want to be more than "barely-sapient", we should discard our geekish ways and go play football.
Brilliant indeed. As I read it at first, I hoped this was a young friend of Harlan Ellison's... As for playing football, I think the author would cheer right up again if we all made a point of having children. Lots of children.
+sj+