CSICOP name controversy revisited
brin...@si194b.llnl.gov
Hey, I just realized something...sure CSICOP can be pronounced psi-cop, but
an even better indictment of the skeptical community is this net.news.group!
In other news groups it is common to abbreviate them by their initials (e.g.
t.o. = talk.origins and a.s.b = alt.sex.bondage). Let us now look what happens
if we abbreviate the name sci.skeptic; you get (drum roll please)......
S.S. Yes, you skeptics are actually part of a fascist plot to discredit the
psychic community. You S.S. guys can just to try to rationalize this away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Brinkman Internet: BRIN...@EDSEQ1.LLNL.GOV
Obligatory Quote: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about
what we pretend to be." -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Disclaimer: With the exception of the Vonnegut quote, I don't even believe
anything I've written above.
Russell Turpin
In article <1991Mar14...@si194b.llnl.gov> brin...@si194b.llnl.gov writes:
> ... Let us now look what happens if we abbreviate the name
> sci.skeptic; you get (drum roll please)......
>
> S.S. Yes, you skeptics are actually part of a fascist plot
He is on to us. Now ve vill hafe to eliminate him.
Russell
Cathi A Cook
Bring on the............... <gasp!>
COMFY CHAIR!
THERE! NOW do you recant?
>Russell
-rocke
Apologies to the Monty_Python-impaired.
Ted L. Glenn
> In other news groups it is common to abbreviate them by their initials (e.g.
> t.o. = talk.origins and a.s.b = alt.sex.bondage). Let us now look what happens
> if we abbreviate the name sci.skeptic; you get (drum roll please)......
>
> S.S. Yes, you skeptics are actually part of a fascist plot to discredit the
> psychic community. You S.S. guys can just to try to rationalize this away.
>
What the hell is this guy talking about? Guy's got to have quite an
imagination to come up with something this far-fetched.
--
-Ted L. Glenn "Don't worry, be happy!" <--Ack! Pffffhhht!
tlg...@cs.arizona.edu
G193...@ccit.arizona.edu G193...@ARIZRVAX.BITNET
Jim Showalter
>imagination to come up with something this far-fetched.
He'd make a GREAT creationist, wouldn't he?
P.S. I think he was kidding, by the way.
--
***** DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are my own. Duh. Like you'd
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-- "When I want your opinion, I'll read it in your entrails."
Russell Turpin
In article <jls.669175141@rutabaga>, j...@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
>> P.S. I think he was kidding, by the way.
In article <11...@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> tlg...@cs.arizona.edu (Ted L. Glenn) writes:
> Yes, I found that out later. Initially, I wasn't sure due to
> the lack of a ":)" or something of that nature.
Sigh.
Initially, the smiley had a fairly small ecological niche. It
was used by the careless to protect humorless offering from
well-deserved rejection. Since people are afraid of not catching
a joke, or appearing louts for over-serious or heavy-handed
response to flip remarks, the smiley served its purpose. The
average net.denizen was swallowing the bitter product from the
net.dimwitted, because the smiley disguised its odor.
It spread from this niche opportunistically. Quickly, the
net.skunk realized that in spreading its stupid and vicious
offal, in hopes that net.denizens would eat it, the smiley would
help disguise its nature. Soon, the most noxious posts were
laced with this device.
Somehow, this voluntary symbiosis has become mandatory. Many
net.denizens have learned to recognize the smiley, and ignore the
nature of what surrounds it. (There is an explanation for this
seemingly unrewarding behavior: it is easy to recognize a
smiley, more difficult to tell the nature of the the many other
objects in networld.) So, many net.denizens gobble up offal if
it is laced with smileys, and pass by flowers if they are not
infected with this pest. It has gotten to the point that those
who make flowers are treated like the net.skunks who drop offal
unless those flowers are so infected. "How was I to know it was
humor -- it didn't have a smiley." A guy who would say this
probably doesn't date women unless they wear skirts.
Feh! And feh again!
The smiley is an attack on writers and readers alike. If it is
funny, it doesn't need a smiley. If is not funny, a smiley won't
help it. The smiley teaches writers that anything they write
will pass as humor as long as it is punctuated properly. It
teaches readers that they must ignore their better judgment, and
look only at punctuation to determine intent.
It is time to eradicate this pest. Don't use. Ignore it when it
appears in postings. Remove its ecological niche, and soon it
will disappear.
Russell
Ted L. Glenn
> >imagination to come up with something this far-fetched.
>
> He'd make a GREAT creationist, wouldn't he?
>
> P.S. I think he was kidding, by the way.
Yes, I found that out later. Initially, I wasn't sure due to the lack of
a ":)" or something of that nature.
--
Ted L. Glenn
I agree. I should've immediately surmised that the original poster was
either being sarcastic or was completely deranged. Since the latter is
unlikely for various reasons, I should've assumed the former.
brin...@si194b.llnl.gov
>In article <jls.669175141@rutabaga>, j...@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) writes:
>>> What the hell is this guy talking about? Guy's got to have quite an
>>>imagination to come up with something this far-fetched.
>> He'd make a GREAT creationist, wouldn't he?
>> P.S. I think he was kidding, by the way.
> Yes, I found that out later. Initially, I wasn't sure due to the lack of
>a ":)" or something of that nature.
Sheesh! To clear it up for all you sci.skeptics, yes this was indeed meant
as a joke.
I admit I am partially responsible for this misunderstanding by not including
my trademark "8^}", but why did I even waste the time typing in a completely
nonstandard disclaimer? When I disclaim something by saying that I don't even
believe what I've written that should tell you something.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Brinkman Internet: BRIN...@EDSEQ1.LLNL.GOV
Disclaimer: Why bother? Noone reads it anyway.
Kenneth Arromdee
>In article <18...@cs.utexas.edu> tur...@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) writes:
>>The smiley is an attack on writers and readers alike. ...
>Why the heavy prejudice, Russ? ...
rec.humor has a tradition of run-on puns.
Let's start one here of run-on deadpan serious attacks on smiley faces.
--
"If God can do anything, can he float a loan even he can't repay?"
--Blair Houghton, cross-posting
Kenneth Arromdee (UUCP: ....!jhunix!arromdee; BITNET: arromdee@jhuvm;
INTERNET: arro...@cs.jhu.edu)
Easily Amused
>funny, it doesn't need a smiley. If is not funny, a smiley won't
>help it. The smiley teaches writers that anything they write
>will pass as humor as long as it is punctuated properly. It
>teaches readers that they must ignore their better judgment, and
>look only at punctuation to determine intent.
>
>It is time to eradicate this pest. Don't use. Ignore it when it
>appears in postings. Remove its ecological niche, and soon it
>will disappear.
>
>Russell
Why the heavy prejudice, Russ? It's been a
tradition in letter writing for years to include
a (ha, ha) or (just a joke mom, I'm still in
school!), since the style is conversational but
the endless non-verbal clues we pick up in a
conversation are not available to us in written
conversations. Think of a smiley as just another
form of punctuation, and you might not get so
undeservedly upset. Just because Melville didn't
use it doesn't mean it isn't literate. Gosh.
Humor is one of the most intricate, delicate,
complicated forms of human communication
available, and it is very easy to misinterpret.
Don't cling to that traditional view of writing,
but be free, experiment. Enjoy life!
Mysti
Daniel Read
You dumb sack of shit! :-)
If I read something ofensive that is followed by a smiley, it is still
offensive. The only difference is that I think the poster is stupid
enough to think that saying something is 'just a joke' will deflect
its viciousness.
If I read something unfunny that is followed by a smiley I think the poster
has a damn poor sense of humour.
If I read something funny followed by a smiley the humour is diminsished
because I think the poster has used poor judgement.
So fuck off and go to hell! :-)
Mikel Evins
>
>You dumb sack of shit! :-)
I agree with all your arguments, and yet still I find myself using
smilies sometimes. So how come I do it?
I thought it over, and I think it is because I assume that
there is sometimes informational content in letting
someone know unambiguously that *I* find one of my
own statements amusing.
Maybe there isn't. I'll have to think about it
some more, and read more arguments.
Provisional: :-)
John Stach x6191
So what? >:-|
It seems to me that you take yourself and others much too seriously. <:^D
Although your "funny" and "unfunny" classifications appear to
encompass all, I think some sort of distinction is appropriate in
order to convey information not easily expressed in words. |B^)
Specifically, sarcasm and overstatement can easily be misinterpreted
by those not familiar enough with the writer and/or the subject. I
find the face,e.g. :-), a convenient shorthand for what would otherwise
require an additional statement and would be clear to everyone in a
face-to-face, (-: :-), conversation. <|:~O
However, I do agree that some inconsiderate, slimey, disgusting,
moronic, shitheads, >|:-[], do overuse faces. :-)
But lets face it, who am I to judge? <:-}
John
Ready and willing to face anything :-)
=== ===
(.) (.)
/\
____
\__/
Eric Pepke
writes:
> Specifically, sarcasm and overstatement can easily be misinterpreted
> by those not familiar enough with the writer and/or the subject.
Yeah, right, like there's really a lot of sarcasm on the net. And I must
have overstated something at least a billion times this year alone.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Eric Pepke INTERNET: pe...@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu
Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu
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