regarding the over- and underlit situations you describe in the polar regions: we humans didn't evolve to live there, and therefore our circadian rhythms are not programmed to deal with polar extremes. of course, the article referring to 100% death rates of all people that get too much light would lend credence to your theory...
So in conclusion, if you think Gutenberg [and the printing guild] held back the printing press...
a lot of the typesetting mastery that he had and taught within the guild would have been withheld from the non-guild typesetters. what he gleaned from the scribes of the time (calligraphers), and was able to utilize in block-type, was -- and still is -- quite remarkable. the evenness of the spacings between letters and words, the evenness of the margins, and the overall darkness of the page... these are things that are completely ignored by many of today's typesetters. but then, he also spent years (five or six) putting the bible together...
btw here's a thought for you--did you ever think that maybe it was BECAUSE of the Printing Guild that printing spread throughout Europe like wildfire?
this idea and the notion that the guild stifled competition are hardly mutually exclusive. yes, gutenberg's press initiated a rapid spread of printing (whether or not as part of his guild). but rather than endorse the spread of the technology, he charged a fortune for his bibles and maintained a very high level of secrecy. we still don't know for certain what casting method -- or metal alloy -- he used to create his blocks.
slashdotitis is this an inflammation of the slashdot?
So, that was only a year ago. How accurate can a story be, handed down for almost a 100 years before it is written down? The authors of the gospels did not witness Jesus first hand, so the stories had to have been passed to them. We've all played "telephone", so how close can the stories of the gospels be to what actually happened?
our thought processes are trained by a literate culture, so what information we need to save is only recalled accurately if stored in a semipermanent fashion (written, chiseled into stone, whatever). two thousand years ago, the stories of the gospels were kept primarily via oral tradition (at first). preliterate (or at best semiliterate) cultures tend to foster much better memories, and stories that are important are learned word for word.
scandinavian folk fiddling, for instance, is extremely precise. a bow-stroke going the wrong direction or a dynamic swell would be -- where probably inaudible to almost everyone -- totally out of place. this precision was not transcribed until quite recently (roughly 150 years ago, i believe). some pacific island cultures (samoan in particular) stress memorization so strongly that samoan children in middle-school choirs refuse to look at sheet music.
Slashdot Mirror
regarding the over- and underlit situations you describe in the polar regions: we humans didn't evolve to live there, and therefore our circadian rhythms are not programmed to deal with polar extremes. of course, the article referring to 100% death rates of all people that get too much light would lend credence to your theory...
well, pot does alleviate some of the severe effects of glaucoma. so let's wear ties so that we can pull the medicinal excuse for smoking.
...and on today's schedule for the five minute hate...
So in conclusion, if you think Gutenberg [and the printing guild] held back the printing press...
a lot of the typesetting mastery that he had and taught within the guild would have been withheld from the non-guild typesetters. what he gleaned from the scribes of the time (calligraphers), and was able to utilize in block-type, was -- and still is -- quite remarkable. the evenness of the spacings between letters and words, the evenness of the margins, and the overall darkness of the page... these are things that are completely ignored by many of today's typesetters. but then, he also spent years (five or six) putting the bible together...
btw here's a thought for you--did you ever think that maybe it was BECAUSE of the Printing Guild that printing spread throughout Europe like wildfire?
this idea and the notion that the guild stifled competition are hardly mutually exclusive. yes, gutenberg's press initiated a rapid spread of printing (whether or not as part of his guild). but rather than endorse the spread of the technology, he charged a fortune for his bibles and maintained a very high level of secrecy. we still don't know for certain what casting method -- or metal alloy -- he used to create his blocks.
slashdotitis
is this an inflammation of the slashdot?
So, that was only a year ago. How accurate can a story be, handed down for almost a 100 years before it is written down? The authors of the gospels did not witness Jesus first hand, so the stories had to have been passed to them. We've all played "telephone", so how close can the stories of the gospels be to what actually happened?
our thought processes are trained by a literate culture, so what information we need to save is only recalled accurately if stored in a semipermanent fashion (written, chiseled into stone, whatever). two thousand years ago, the stories of the gospels were kept primarily via oral tradition (at first). preliterate (or at best semiliterate) cultures tend to foster much better memories, and stories that are important are learned word for word.
scandinavian folk fiddling, for instance, is extremely precise. a bow-stroke going the wrong direction or a dynamic swell would be -- where probably inaudible to almost everyone -- totally out of place. this precision was not transcribed until quite recently (roughly 150 years ago, i believe). some pacific island cultures (samoan in particular) stress memorization so strongly that samoan children in middle-school choirs refuse to look at sheet music.