13 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Spelling Reform Requires Competition of Spelling Options
The first condition of rational progress in spelling reform is that persons who know, or who think they know, how words should be speld, should recover some- thing of their former freedom to spel in accordance with individual judgment. Only in that way can there be a wholesome rivalry of forms with ultimate survival of the best. The Board does not expect any one to adopt a spelling that, to him, suggests a pronunciation at variance with his usage. Those whose temper moves them to ...Not everyone hears or speaks words the same way. Let variances of spelling propagate and have the public adopt that which seems correct by consensus.
13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Weakness of the Library of Alexandria
Both the work of research and the work of dissemination went on under serious handicaps. One of these was the great social gap that {152}separated the philosopher, who was a gentleman, from the trader and the artisan. There were glass workers and metal workers in abundance in those days, but they were not in mental contact with the thinkers. The glass worker was making the most beautifully coloured beads and phials and so forth, but he never made a Florentine flask or a lens. Clear glass does...The library's knowledge did not benefit the average worker. It's discoveries were purely academic, reserved for the aristocracy.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Superstition is Based on Personal Experience
Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully cont...Astrology and other pseudosciences are believed because they appear to work in the real world, it is up to experiment to disprove them.