h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice to see some fairly serious stuff here. I think there's just to many un-serious entries on H2G2.
Make no mistake, I like a good laugh
In fact nobody likes a good laugh as much as I do!
Come to think of it, Jesper likes a good laugh more than I do.
And my mother.
Okay, maybe a lot of people like a good laugh more than I do, but that's beside the point.
Which is that I appreciate that H2G2 is a forum for both entertainment, fun and serious stuff.
Now I'll end this forum entry and go back to your article, hoping that by reading it again, I'll understand a little more. String-theory is heavy stuff, you know, and in particularly when explained in another language.
(Another language than the one I speak when I do not speak English.)
(Which would be the language I speak when I speak my native language.)
(Which would be Danish!)
Nuff silly talk here, it's good to be serious.

Yep, it is good to see this sort of thing. If you want more serious articles, pop by my page...I've written a few...and perhaps some day the editors will approve one

Gotta love that anthropic principle, too. Things are as they are because they could not be otherwise while we're watching. It's either the most brilliant thing in the world or positively daft.

...hope that saying 'I like this serious article' and 'aren't there lots of non-serious ones' might be an indication that you might think we're getting something of the right balance...?

I have no problems with the balance. Just like to see both kinds. What do you prefer?

Oh, the anthropic principle is perfectly sound... until we happen to come across another universe, we're not in a position to comment on why it has the number of (non-curled-up) dimensions that it has... in the same way that, until we come across another planet with life on it, we're not really in a position to comment on how probably the occurance of life is.

Don't worry 'bout your articles... we'll get round to them at some point .

I'm more on the serious side - and I think the guidelines lean that way as well, which is good. This should be a good read, but it is also very important that it should be a useful guide as well...

Yeah, sure.

But you gotta ask yourself one thing:

A guide for who?
And when are They coming?
And what do They want?
And how?
And why?

I know, that was not one question. Select one for yourself to ask!

I actually have used H2G2 for research. Sure, it's not a certified source, but in middle school that doesn't matter too much. It's really more like talking to someone who knows about the subject. THe only problem I have is that there are large gaps in its realm of knowledge, but that is gettting better every day.
Funny articles are FUN!!!

One of the benefits to using H2G2 (and other online sources) for research is that they contain all knowledge. To balance that, though, they contain all falsehoods and misconceptions as well. For instance, you may or may not want to cite the fact that icebergs are made of recrystallized albatross droppings in your next middle school paper.

True, I might not want to do that. But a lot of times when you are studying something, even if you only read certified encylopedias of the highest quality, there will be discrepancies. The upshot of it is that it pays off to look at a lot of sources, and you do get a much better general idea, even if you aren't able to verify every specific fact. I like learning that way; some don't.

An excellent point. In fact, the insight that facts are generally (some say always) dictated by sources is one that many people never come up with. As for a learning style, I've always been rather in favor of trying to know everything about everything.

It is in deed a pleasurable idea to know everything about anything, but as things go, this is not easily obtained.
As a teacher, I recomend the usage of the Internet to my pupils, but I also strongly advice them to use their sound judgement in determining the reliability of their source.
Remember, chaps, history is written by the winners of the wars - or better yet today, by those who wanna win!
But hey, I'd rather se a well debated paper with a few stray facts than e neat pile of nothing but copy-paste.

Oh, absolutely. When I was a teaching assistant I routinely handed out very harsh marks to those whose idea of an essay with opinion was simply to rearrange facts with no interpretation. This did not make me popular in an era of grade inflation, and is certainly one of the reasons I didn't make a career out of academe (greed being the other chief reason).

And yes, it's not easy to know everything about anything, but it makes for a good goal. It's that old reach-and-grasp thing.

Well, who doesn't want it all?

Try to know everything: good goal, just be realistic about how far you are from it. There's also the strategy of finding out a lot of stuff and then simply using the facts you can verify. One VERY annoying thing is that, because I sometimes sound fairly mature when I write, teachers only look at the long words and downgrade me for cut and pasting which I didn't do. Only stupid teachers, mind you, but they do.

Well, I know the problem.
When I try to grade a paper, it is sometimes difficult to determine if cheat has been applied to the work.
But once there was a guy who had written in his text that this would beexplained more thorroughly in the next issue of the magazine. I personally consider this the silliest attempt of copy-paste scam, I have ever witnessed. And he was 15 years, he cannot have been as stupid. (Lazy seems to be a more appropriate word!)
Naturally it is easier to determine the real effort if I know the pupil in question.
You're right, only stupid teachers would grade from the viewpoint you described. All is not done in using long or short words!
Hey - come to Denmark and have mee grade your assignments in stead!

Sometimes I try to be realistic. Still, I think one of the turning points of my life was my first visit to a large library as a small child and the sudden realization that I'd never be able to read ALL the books. I understand this intellectually, but I don't think it's ever really soaked into my core being; I'm in denial. I still want to read them ALL, even if it's likely that I'll never even get around to reading all the ones we own.

As for those silly teachers...some day, you would have a fulfilling life, and they will still be messing with students who are smarter than they are. Pity them.

Yup - pitty us!

A word of comfort: Not every book in a library is a good book. With some luck, there are more bad books between the ones you haven't read than the ones you have read!
I hope...

The problem is that I am utterly addicted to books. I'll read anything...romance novels, westerns, repair manuals for obsolete office equipment, political tracts...

Worse yet, I enjoy them all! Maybe some of them I don't enjoy enough to go back for a second reading.

Have you talked to a professional about this?

I have an old Windows 3.1 manual you can have...