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Truth: Can You Handle It? - washingtonpost.com

Truth: Can You Handle It? - washingtonpost.com.

Truth: Can You Handle It?
Better Yet: Do You Know It When You See It?
By Monica Hesse, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, April 27, 2008

How many legs does a dog have, if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. -- Abraham Lincoln
* * * *
[*Note: Lincoln never said this. He liked a similar, more long-winded anecdote about a cow, but the dog version? Nope. Still, the quote is credited to Abe on some 11,000 different Web pages, including quote resources Brainy Quote and World of Quotes.

[Though not technically "true," the quote makes a nice start to this article about truth, being topical and brief, so if we want to go with truth-by-consensus (very popular now), we can go ahead and just say that he said it.

[Besides, by the time you finish this article, your brain might have tricked you into thinking that he did say it (more on that later), so let's just go ahead and leave it in. Okay?]

Moving on. Inhabitants of the Wiki-world, consider these random but related events, most of which pertain to the under-25 set, all of which occurred in the past six months: The launching of Cumul.us, a wiki-weather site in which users can collaboratively decide whether it is raining outside. The release of "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society," Farhad Manjoo's exploration of the "cultural ascendancy of belief over fact." The addition of "collateral misinformation" to UrbanDictionary.com. The entry: "When someone alters a Wikipedia article to win a specific argument, anyone who reads the false article before the 'error' is corrected suffers from collateral misinformation." And a scholar at the Hoover Institution performed an experiment with totally unsurprising results: When 100 terms from U.S. history books were entered into Google, the topics' Wikipedia articles were the first hits 87 times.

A cautionary tale.. they say a civilization that doesn't know what's true will repeat the past and collapse.. or that's what history tells us.. I don't know if that's true, or not.. I just composed it here.. I didn't do any fact-checking, or consult any "authoritative" sources before writing it.. Let's leave Truth in the eye, mind, and research of the "beholder," or True Wiki Believer.. The TWB: something to embrace, or fear?

The whole matter reminds me of when my Mother would tell me, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you follow them?" She used to win a lot of arguments, um, discussions with me, that way.. smart woman...

Nude Vacations: No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries - New York Times

Nude Vacations: No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries - New York Times.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries
By MICHELLE HIGGINS, Published: April 27, 2008

WHEN Larry Massa says he likes to travel light, he means it. No need for a jacket and tie at dinner, a pristine set of tennis whites when he hits the court, or even a bathrobe to wear when heading from his hotel room to the pool or the spa.

For when Mr. Massa, 74, a retired Navy commander and computer science engineer from Virginia Beach, and his wife, Darlene, go on vacation, they do it in the nude. “If you haven’t tried it, there’s no way I can tell you what a fun thing it is, what an added dimension to a vacation it can be” said Mr. Massa, who has been taking “clothing-optional” vacations since 2001 and whose most recent trip was to an all-nude resort in Mexico. “I’ll never forget the day,” said Mr. Massa, recalling the couple’s first nudist vacation at a Caribbean resort. “The place was full. We went to the far end of the pool and Dar said, ‘I’m going to take my top off.’ I thought I’m not going to wear these stupid swim trunks in the pool. So I jumped in naked. She looked down at me and dropped her bottoms and we never looked back.”

Forbes.com Best of the Web: Literary Blogs

Forbes.com Best of the Web: Literary Blogs.

Literary Blogs

Much like political blogs, literary blogs have made pseudo-celebrities of their creators while offering alternatives to the mainstream press. Their breathless late-night posts--part literary gossip, part book club chatter, part critical rant--discuss the books that aren't reviewed in The New York Times. The result? While they're not going to rival Oprah's Book Club, independent voices with names such as Bookslut are having an impact on the way books are talked about and sold like never before. Many have been successful enough to launch their own Webzines to boot. -- Brooke Watkins

   

Read our Review for:		Visit:
GalleyCat		www.mediabistro.com/galleycat
Blog of a Bookslut		www.bookslut.com/blog
Elegant Variation		marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar
Literary Saloon		www.complete-review.com/saloon
Maud Newton		maudnewton.com/blog
Litblog Co-op		lbc.typepad.com/blog
Old Hag		www.theoldhag.com
Readerville		www.readerville.com

Library Opens Main Reading Room to 16-Year-Old Researchers - The Library Today (Library of Congress)

Library Opens Main Reading Room to 16-Year-Old Researchers - The Library Today (Library of Congress).

News from the Library of Congress
Press contact: Matt Raymond (202) 707-0020
Public contact: Victoria C. Hill (202) 707-5530

April 23, 2008
Library of Congress Opens Main Reading Room to Researchers Age 16 and Older

The Library of Congress today announced that the minimum age for use of the Main Reading Room to access the Library’s physical collections for research purposes has been lowered to 16. The previous requirement was that researchers be above high school age.

"The Library of Congress is always looking for ways to create new lifelong learners, to expand access to knowledge and to spark the creativity of future generations," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

"We want people of all ages to be aware of the almost limitless resources that are available in libraries, including their de facto national library, especially at a time when the amount of information online still represents only a tiny fraction of the sum total of human knowledge."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 8 million 16- and 17-year-olds living in the United States.

Protecting Your Nest Egg In a Volatile Market

Protecting Your Nest Egg In a Volatile Market.

Don’t Panic: Protecting Your Nest Egg in a Volatile Market
By Carole Fleck, April 8, 2008 - AARP Bulletin Today

Stocks are tumbling. Home values are plunging. Consumer prices are rising. Family budgets and savings plans are shrinking.

As Americans confront an economy in turmoil, financial planners say older investors should concentrate on preserving their retirement nest egg and reducing volatility in their portfolio.

And the most important message, say financial planners: Don't panic. Don't do anything drastic.

To weather the downturn, the AARP Bulletin Today asked five financial experts for their advice for (1) boomers in their 50s with a decade or more remaining in the workforce, (2) workers nearing retirement and (3) retirees living on a fixed income. Though the advisers’ views vary, they all agree that diversified holdings and a solid financial plan—savings, pensions and Social Security—are crucial for a comfortable retirement. Here are some tips tailored for you...

Some good tips here, to weather this current recession and financial turmoil...

Hemingway Stylesheet: The Kansas City Star

Hemingway Stylesheet: The Kansas City Star. [PDF]

This facsimile of The Star Copy Style sheet is one of the most often-requested pieces of memorabilia relating to the history of The Kansas City Star. This is the document that Ernest Hemingway would have been given during his tenure writing police and emergency-room items at The Star in 1917 and 1918. Hemingway later remarked to a reporter that the admonitions in this style sheet were the best rules I ever learned in the business of writing.
...
Please visit our comprehensive website about Hemingway in Kansas City and Hemingway at 100, located at http://www.kcstar.com/hemingway/