User:Larry Sanger/Old comments

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Requesting a SiberianHusky...that's all! RoseParks

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Plenty of SiberianHusky's in Alaska, Larry's home state. Larry's family used to have a SiberianHusky named Sheba, but Sheba disappeared when Larry was small.

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Why are all SiberianHusky's named Sheba? I've had 3 different friends with them so far, and they are all named the same....

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I don't know! -- Larry

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Clearly you haven't met the SiberianHuskys I know...Tara and Sarah!!!

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I'm going to treat this page like email, since it probably doesn't belong in the pedia itself. I found your lecture on The problem of evil quite enjoyable, and an argument occurred to me which I thought I might bounce off of you.

I suppose I might call it evil relativism. That is to say, evil is simply any event which lowers one's enjoyment (in the most general sense) - the lower half of our happiness scale. If we eliminated everything we consider evil - natural as well as man-made, *we* would certainly notice the difference. But say the temperature still was allowed to vary from 50 degrees F in the winter to 85 degrees F in the summer, and that one being caught outside in winter without a coat was the most unpleasant thing that ever might happen to us. We would probably never complain (indeed, many of us would relish that rare feeling of goosebumps), but would not our grandchildren consider this the most extreme possible evil?

If one accepts this argument, that evil is perceived relatively and is part of any effable universe, would this not nullify argument 4?

-J

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It would be a criticism of premise 7 (that evil exists in the world), not of premise 4, as far as I can tell. The proposal is that evil is relative, and therefore, because someone in much worse conditions than we're in now would not consider the conditions we're in now as evil, evil doesn't exist. I don't really agree that this latter conclusion really follows from the premise that evil is relative, but I think you might be on to something here. I really don't know that much about this area of philosophy, to tell the truth. -- Larry Sanger

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Hey, Larry, where did you do your phil grad? --curious PhillipHankins

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Ohio State--wrote my dissertation on epistemic circularity, George Pappas was my advisor with Marshall Swain a committee member.

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Political discussion not allowed on this page. :-)

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Folks, I've had a lot of fun with Wikipedia this week (Feb. 11-16 or so) but I am going to have to start limiting the time I spend on it, so I can work more diligently on NuPedia. :-) -- Larry

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Seems so quiet around here lately...no thanks to me, of course. Well, I'm hard at work on the latest update to Nupedia's policy statement, which will be fully integrated with Nupedia's system. When that's done, I'll have plenty more time to spend on Wikipedia, perhaps an hour or two a day. -- Larry

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On the jargon you wikied on Ramicristates - this is a good thing, and I'll probably end up filling some of it in. I am wondering about what to do with words defined in sentence, eg forms a plasmodium or forms a slug, where the definition of the term is pretty much "what it forms". Also for terms like lobose, which doesn't really mean anything outside of the context of pseudopod, and amoeboid, which is pretty much being used as a synonym for Sarcodina.

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Well, it doesn't matter that much to me :-), but just from the point of view of a nonscientist reading the article, I'd be confused by terms like "plasmodium," so if I want to understand it I'll either have to look the word up or have you explain it to me on the wiki! Some of the entries are bound to be very brief. Nothing wrong with that. Re: "slug," of course that means something else in addition to what you mean by it.

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Nice job refactoring my vagueness about bluegrass. -- Gaz

Thanks! --LS

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Congradulations on wiki growth during the last two months. Many of the entries are now encyclopedia quality entries. Others are fast approaching.

It fun to try to define topics such as hate crime without parroting[?] media lines. It's amazing how much information is quoted directly without verification from the Associated Press guidelines and storybook.

It is also fun to try to define these topics without relying on press release journalism - (my term for news articles that almost directly rewrite a press release without any critical examination of the things stated in the press release). Probabally, the number one reason why the current media fails to objectively report the news. Low admission/graduation criteria for journalism schools contributes also.

 :)

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Thanks! --LS

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LMS. It will take me less time to redo Calculus, than it will take you to read my message about the new bug on www.n*p*dia.com...:-). Please do not minimize me by initialzing me!!! RoseParks

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Well, we already found that bug, why, hours before you did :-P, and I confidently predict that Toan will fix it well before noon! --LMS----

Say...Mr. Sanger I know you are here. I duuno, but I guess this is what Virtuall Unreality[?] means..;-). Been wonderin about that. Before I head off to The White House[?] I came to tell you, I sure gotta hand it to you. This is an enervating place...been busy since I landed. I'm leavin a big Texas Handshake[?] for ya. Next time were goin both handshake, not just howdie. I'm settin up the White House Wiki[?] and you are welcome there anytime at all. Oh...and takin CliffordAdams with me. I just know you won't be mindin. By the time ya all get yer boots on, he'll be back. Bye all...come on fellas, we got a haystack a work to do. Had a real good time here- George W

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Thanks, Mr. President! It's been a great honor to have you with us. I'm sure if CliffordAdams is developing the White House wiki, he'll have plenty of people to satisfy Wikipedia feature requests. So we don't mind at all! All the best, Larry Sanger.