Starke's New Writeups

Acclaimed Music (thing)

2003-05-12T01:47:26Z

http://hem.bredband.net/b132682/

Critics and statistics are two things you really never ought to trust.

But you will. And I will.

There is a certain authority in an *all-time list*. Rolling Stone won't call their list "100 Songs we really like a lot, they're really great, swear to God." because not many Rolling Stone readers would give a damn about that list. They want an all time list, so they can finally, once and for all, have someone tell them what the best song ever is. For the 53rd time.

There's a notable difference between someone saying "My favorite band is Pink Floyd." and "Pink Floyd is the best band ever!" And the difference is more than just how hard (or where) you should be punching them. One of them appears to be an opinion, one of them appears to be a fact. In reality, of course, they're both opinions. In the end, these lists, they're all opinions, they're all statistics, they'…

Bowling for Columbine (thing)

2003-03-25T00:47:03Z

The most memorable moment of this year's Oscars was either Adrien Brody's win/speech for best actor, or Michael Moore's win/speech¹ for best documentary. Or maybe Polanski's win. Anyways, for those of you who didn't watch, Moore exercised his freedom of speech and some audience members exercised their freedom to boo loudly.

Bowling for Columbine, the highest grossing documentary ever, won best documentary, and nobody was very surprised.

I liked it. I liked it enough to see it twice in theaters. This movie has some of the funniest moments of any movie I've seen in a long while, which says something about the quality of the modern comedy.

And I still like it, even though it's got some less than completely truthful stuff that must be brought to attention.

Things to note:

First and foremost, a very minor point in Moore's anti-gun argument, but a huge point in

…

Node your homework (idea)

2003-01-02T03:42:01Z

Here's the thing: A lot of homework is inane. I'm not talking about factual stuff; if you did a biography on somebody or are explaining some science or math, you are doing this place a great service by noding your homework. I'm talking about that time your English teacher asked you to write a report on the similarities in the symbolism of To Have and Have Not and Far from the Madding Crowd. You wrote it in 10 minutes, and you got an 'A' because your teacher didn't actually read it. Should you node it? Maybe not.

In order for the reader to understand your writeup, they have to have read both of those books. We have many smart and well-read people on this site, and I'm sure that more than a few of you have read To Have and Have Not and Far from the Madding Crowd. But the majority have not. Far more people would benefit from separate (non-spoiler) writeups on the books themselves. (As of 1/1/03 both of the nodes could use…

Editor Log: December 2002 (idea)

2002-12-06T22:27:45Z

I used to play Magic: the Gathering. Obsessively (is there any other way?) For about five years, I spent about as much time on that game as I currently spend on e2. I studied a decent amount of magic strategy. I still remember what every single card I run into here does. I played magic for about 5 years. Then I quit. Quite a few people quit.

Magic: the Gathering is not static. New cards come out. New rulings are made. New strategies become effective. Because of this, magic cards don't exactly fit in here. As long as the game continues to be updated (and there are no signs of that stoping,) it is nearly impossible to node about magic cards while still noding for the ages.

novalis auto-noded all of the magic card sets up to Urza's Saga. Since then, over +2500 new cards have entered the game. If the magic card writeups are to stay in the database, it is imperative that all of these new cards be added. A current player would have little use for the cards on…

Poor Richard's Almanack (thing)

2002-10-09T01:46:52Z

Ben Franklin, "the first civilized American," did a whole lot of important things in his life. Publishing Poor Richard's Almanack (1732 to 1757) was one of those things. It is still the best known American almanac to date.

Franklin was a well known printer in Philadelphia. He wasn't excessively rich at the time, but he wasn't poor. He decided to start this almanac with the target audience of Philadelphians. He would eventually become quite rich thanks to Poor Richard's Almanack. At its height, 10,000 copies a year were being published.

Ben Franklin was a heavy user of pseudonyms. Poor Richard's Almanack is probably the best case of this. Ben wrote as the poor man Richard Saunders (actually a 17th century British astronomer.) Poor Richard was writing the almanack for a good cause, a wife nagging him for money.

Franklin mixed up practical knowledge, proverbs, weather and astronomical predictions and everything else in Poor…

The Everything People Registry : United States : California (idea)

2002-09-20T23:02:56Z

The Everything People Registry : United States : California

"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California."
-Edward Abbey

By County:

Northern California:

Alameda County

scibtag : Alameda
Calast : Berkeley
ceylonbreakfast : Berkeley
Ereneta : Berkeley
khym chanur : Berkeley
Starke: Berkeley
sten : Berkeley
Wintersweet : Fremont
imago : Hayward
bindlenix : Oakland
DrSeudo : Oakland
Lethal : Oakland
Jason W : Oakland
misuba : Oakland
oakling : Oakland
doopokko : Pleasanton

Contra Costa County

litmus : Concord
KrazyIvan : Pinole

…