tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post2982213145880540337..comments2023-04-13T06:07:42.577-04:00Comments on The People's Republic of D.Cous.: AbstractionD.Cous.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00107469506062466876noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post-45139831366757110242010-08-13T12:08:56.396-04:002010-08-13T12:08:56.396-04:00BTW: plural of platypus is platypuses AND platypi....BTW: plural of platypus is platypuses AND platypi. The second sounds way cooler...Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05992611798455984316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post-71836615528736352752010-07-25T20:46:44.286-04:002010-07-25T20:46:44.286-04:00Yes, excellent post Cous. I particularly enjoyed t...Yes, excellent post Cous. I particularly enjoyed the platypus comments, it seemed to really make the point very understandable.<br /><br />This all reminds me of how upset some people got when we revoked Pluto's planet status. It's still the same thing it used to be, we're just calling it something different (and in my opinion never should have called it a planet in the first place).Robert Lynchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10268815170382205995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post-70342183117000238272010-06-25T19:30:16.458-04:002010-06-25T19:30:16.458-04:00I like maps, too. I hang them up all over my room ...I like maps, too. I hang them up all over my room and stare at them. Sometimes, someone will tell me they're from a certain place, and I'll find it on my map, and think "gee, that looks like a pretty cool place; I'd like to go there." It doesn't matter that I can't actually SEE anything about that place on my map. It could be a the funny border of a country, or some weird peninsula, or a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. All I can think is "I want to go to there."L. H. Lynchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01418868114503035805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post-68422512685739094322010-06-25T13:12:09.968-04:002010-06-25T13:12:09.968-04:00Having taught animal taxonomy many times now to sc...Having taught animal taxonomy many times now to school children, I understand why people get hung up on the boxes. We want our information orderly enough that we can retrieve information we have collected and examine it closer. We can't have a separate "box" for each item, so we group them. I particularly like the platypus, because he gets a box almost to himself. He has to share it with the echidna (also called the spiny anteater, which creates confusion to some since it is not an anteater, though it is an eater of ants). Oftentimes the boxes are not neat and rearranging becomes necessary--but it's the system of boxes, not the actual content of the boxes, that gives the order.<br /><br />Sometimes I resent the classifying into "boxes". Just yesterday, someone classified me as a political person, as opposed to her being an academic person. It was because I made a comment that she considered political, although it could also have been religious. So I was put into the political box, although I am a teacher, and therefore could equally be called an academic person. But by classifying me as a political person, she could dismiss my comments because her concern was only academic. It was convenient for her. Annoying to me.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05992611798455984316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16955127.post-49490275867307409362010-06-24T16:57:43.344-04:002010-06-24T16:57:43.344-04:00Good post. The implications of this brand of think...Good post. The implications of this brand of thinking are far reaching and it never fails to amaze me how often we fall back on the net of artificial classifications that we've created.<br /><br />Also, this reminds me of my days on the survey crew where my only job was to go out into the field and take the complexity of a natural environment and turn it into quantifiable chunks. Stuff like that reminds me that anything you do can inform you on the peculiarities of the human condition. I presently work managing web design projects but I'm doing the same thing. I take an organic work process and try to force the things my team does into quantifiable blocks of "deliverables" and "project phases". It doesn't really matter that the work being performed doesn't always fit.E. W. Lynchhttp://ewlynch.comnoreply@blogger.com