Signatures

Remember when library books had a pocket that held an index-sized card glued to the inside cover?  Glued opposite the pocket was a piece of paper lined off in boxes.  To check out the book you removed the card and signed your name.  The librarian stamped the date due next to your signature and also on the paper glued in the book.  They kept the card in a file so they knew who had the book.

I still remember how grown-up it felt when I was eight and was asked to sign my name on those cards.  Now we just hand over our library card to be scanned or swiped.  Do kids currently get to sign their names anywhere?  On schoolwork they're probably asked to print ...

Adults don't sign things as much as we used to, either.  Few write checks when shopping and even for charges we don't have to sign unless the purchase is over some amount, $25 or $50 depending on the store.  Bills get paid on line; no checks to sign. 

Handwriting is becoming an old-fashioned skill.  It's not taught in many schools.  The increasing use of PINS, electronic signatures, thumb prints, retinal scans and whatever new techy biometric is on the horizon mean hand-written signatures as proof of identity are maybe already obsolete.  The tech solutions, especially biometrics, are certainly harder to forge, which means better security.  But we've lost the visible individuality of our John Hancocks.

(image from HERE)

The use of that famous man's name as a synonym for signature will become one of those sayings that no one under a certain age will understand.

That makes me sad.

WisCon 37

I just got back from attending WisCon in Madison, Wisconsin.  It was totally awesome, with many wonderful panel sessions and much food, friendliness and laughter.  I will definitely go again.

For any readers who haven't heard of this particular conference, here's the description from the website:  "WisCon's Focus  -  This is the world's leading feminist science fiction convention. WisCon encourages discussion and debate of ideas relating to feminism, gender, race and class. WisCon welcomes writers, editors and artists whose work explores these themes as well as their many fans. We have panel discussions, academic presentations, and readings as well as many other uncategorizable events. WisCon is primarily a book-oriented convention... with an irrepressible sense of humor."

I haven't had time yet to organize my notes from the panels I attended.  I plan to summarize that in a future post.  



While driving home I thought about the perspective difference between fiction and nonfiction. 

For me, reading a nonfiction book is like taking a bus tour where the author is the driver and tour guide.  I'm in the bus with my nose pressed up against the glass while hearing the equivalent of, "On your right is the locally famous Three Horned Toads Pub."

In the fiction book, it's as if I'm greeted with a warm hug by the author.  "Got the guest room all cozy.  We'll drop off your stuff and head to the pub."  Soon I'm immersed in the sounds and aromas of the Three Horned Toads, watching the local bully being told off by some visitor.

I'm not saying nonfiction is devoid of sensory information or local color, but as the reader I often feel like an observer outside the events depicted.  For me, the fiction perspective is immersion, experiencing life events as a local.  I suppose the preference for immersion is why I don't read many nonfiction books.

Your mileage may differ, of course.

Quoted for Truth

I'm feeling rather philosophical today.  Here are some thoughts, profound and insightful.  None of them original to me, but I agree with all. 

Prospero's Precepts -- 11 rules for critical thinking from history's great minds (via inlilac)

"1.  All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level.  (Stephen Schneider)

2.  Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong.  (Dandemis)

3.  Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.  (Francis Bacon)

4.  Never fall in love with your hypothesis.  (Peter Medawar)

5.  It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.  (Arthur Conan Doyle)

6.  A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong.  (Francis Crick)

7.  The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that is most interesting.  (Richard Feynman)

8.  To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.  (Charles Darwin)

9.  It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble.  It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.  (Mark Twain)

10.  Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.  (Thomas Jefferson)

11.  All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.  (Arthur Schopenhauer)"

This strikes me as very sensible advice.  IMO numbers 9 and 11 are especially relevant to many current controversies.