The Chat Thread

[TheGSMoeller]

Are you sure your name's not GURN?

I certainly can thank Gurn for assisting with the Haydn increase in my collection.

[Brian]

I wrote a blog essay on the Obamacare ruling, but I don't want to post it. I'm job-hunting and wouldn't like to alienate any potential employers who find my site by posting political or religious material.

[TheGSMoeller]

I wrote a blog essay on the Obamacare ruling, but I don't want to post it. I'm job-hunting and wouldn't like to alienate any potential employers who find my site by posting political or religious material.

Then why even tell us about it if you won't let us read it 

[Brian]

Then why even tell us about it if you won't let us read it 

To vent my frustration... I should go anonymous.

[eyeresist]

The problem is knowing which is the stupid stuff. An awful lot of people can't tell. We tend to mistake ignorant BS that coincides with our own prejudices for valid information . . . and to dismiss rational investigation of facts that threatens our pet beliefs as BS.

The internet certainly allows stupidity to foster, but it also allows the opposite. Remember, or imagine if you can, the isolated life of the classical music fan before the internet, when your only resources were the local music shop, possibly a mail order catalog, some biographies at the local library, and maybe the Penguin guide. (People have mentioned libraries lending classical records, but I never experienced such a thing.) Now almost any record can be bought from Amazon, and for most pieces there are multiple informed opinions to take in (and certainly some less informed ones, but there are here at GMG at least two dozen people at least as well informed as the archetypal shopkeeper guru).

The thing that really stumps me is: how can the classical record industry be in decline when Amazon and GMG make it easier for more people to buy music than ever before? I mean, Mirror Image alone could keep a boutique label in business all year round.

[ibanezmonster]

The problem is knowing which is the stupid stuff. An awful lot of people can't tell. We tend to mistake ignorant BS that coincides with our own prejudices for valid information . . . and to dismiss rational investigation of facts that threatens our pet beliefs as BS.

It's a very rare person who can learn to distinguish them without hands on guidance. Our ability to correct ourselves -- and thus learn -- from within the closed system of our own limited understanding is pretty slight.

Well, it really depends on which type of information we're talking about here.
If you're talking about, for example, news stories or personal websites that don't contain comments sections or aren't widely rated on Web of Trust, you're going to be completely in the dark. Also, in web forums, you can just read totally biased agenda-based nonsense everywhere and fall into a trap... I assume you may be referring to this more.

As for books, you usually have a greater advantage than in the past in knowing what is good and what isn't- if it's a book that is read widely enough, you simply go to Amazon and read the user comments/ratings and make up your own mind about it, but it will be a more informed mind than simply stumbling upon it on the library bookshelf. (same point eyeresist is making, I suppose)

[Brian]

As for books, you usually have a greater advantage than in the past in knowing what is good and what isn't- if it's a book that is read widely enough, you simply go to Amazon and read the user comments/ratings and make up your own mind about it, but it will be a more informed mind than simply stumbling upon it on the library bookshelf. (same point eyeresist is making, I suppose)

Same holds true for Yelp/restaurants, TripAdvisor/hotels, and a whole host of websites for various consumer products and services, plus various more academic/knowledge-heavy fora (such as this). Sure, if you hang out in the comments section of YouTube you'll be treated to humanity at its worst, in a way that it couldn't express itself before the internet, but no force for good information as powerful as the internet has ever existed before, either.

[Opus106]

Independence Day.

Henceforth to be known as Higgs Day!

A compromise has been reached, apparently.

[DavidRoss]

Same holds true for Yelp/restaurants,

Yelp has been absolutely evil, blackmailing business owners by putting up bad reviews if they won't buy advertising -- according to both local (Sacramento) restaurateurs and mechanics.

[Brian]

Yelp has been absolutely evil, blackmailing business owners by putting up bad reviews if they won't buy advertising -- according to both local (Sacramento) restaurateurs and mechanics.

That's odd. The only time I've seen anything fishy on Yelp was a Middle Eastern restaurant peppered with 5-star reviews from the owner's friends.

[DavidRoss]

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-extortion-allegations-stack-up/Content?oid=1176984

There's also the ever popular demand from sleazy customers for freebies in exchange for not posting a scathing review.

[Brian]

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-extortion-allegations-stack-up/Content?oid=1176984

There's also the ever popular demand from sleazy customers for freebies in exchange for not posting a scathing review.

Thanks, an interesting read. Makes me wonder what has happened in the three-plus years since. According to some cursory research, the CEO remains at the helm, but Yelp now lists the reviews it has "filtered" out (you click a button to display them) and proprietors' responses to reviews are posted directly as comments of sorts. Given the enormous volume of stuff there is on the site (and given the experiences of a friend of mine who temped for the site), I can't imagine their fingers are in more than 0.0001% of available pies.

[nesf]

Damn psychologist told me that I'd spend more than enough on music lately and that I needed to cut back.

(I'm in a mixed manic state at the moment, damn bipolar etc)

[Ataraxia]

Damn psychologist told me that I'd spend more than enough on music lately and that I needed to cut back.

I think they'd tell most GMGers that. 

[nesf]

I think they'd tell most GMGers that. 

I felt like telling her something similar.

Good thing I didn't tell her that I treated myself to a new iPod too...

[DavidRoss]

I felt like telling her something similar.

Aaaah. Now it's clear. You should have told her you were buying shoes, not CDs.

[nesf]

Aaaah. Now it's clear. You should have told her you were buying shoes, not CDs.

Well, see that's how it works with my wife.

"You spent €200 on music over the past three days???"
"How much were the last pair of shoes you bought?"
"Point."

[eyeresist]

Because you asked for it:

Reports from the latest Australian census indicate that adherents of Scientology are few and far between:

Scientologists - 2,163
Jedi - 65,000

[mc ukrneal]

Because you asked for it:

Reports from the latest Australian census indicate that adherents of Scientology are few and far between:

Scientologists - 2,163
Jedi - 65,000

Actually, that is a lot relatively. Australia is less than 0.1% of the world's population. But 2,163 is about 1% of the estimated worldwide Scientologists (200,000 at the highend; there is a 3.5m number out there, but that seems inflated).

[ibanezmonster]

So they ended up discovering that boson particle after all (and are trying to find out whether it is a Higgs boson or not)... 
hmm. After this major problem has (almost) been solved, I wonder how many problems that leaves physicists to tackle in order to understand the universe?...