In an ideal world we wouldn't need communism, because it would be ideal. If you're going to dream, dream big. No, in an ideal world we would not need comunism because we would already have it.
what if tomorrow a report comes out showing that African elephants have increased 50% over the last three years... what will the Wikipedia moderators do?
Not by 50% and not over three years, but a peer-reviewed article did come out last year which used recent census data to show that that elephant numbers in Eastern and Southern Africa (which together account for 96% of the continent's known elephants) increased by 25% between (roughly) 1996 and 2002:
Blanc et al (2005) Changes in elephant numbers in major savanna populations in eastern and southern Africa. Pachyderm 38, 19-28. http://www.iucn.org/afesg/pachy/pdfs/pachy38019028 .pdf
Yes, that is precisely Colbert's point - that truth itself is irrelevant when mass perception dictates otherwise. And while he may not realize it, he's picked a particularly apt example to illustrate it.
Back in 1979, famed elephant researcher Iain Douglas-Hamilton said there were 1.3 million elephants in Africa, but declining precipitously. Never mind that over a third of that figure was a complete and utter thumbsuck - and most likely a gross overestimate - or that a meeting of experts only two years later found most populations to be doing quite well. The 1.3 million figure, and the purported massive declines stuck in the public imagination and became set in stone. The dogma was further reinforced years later, when more objective researchers excluded the wild guesses and came up with estimates of around half a million elephants - thus unwittingly vindicating the doomsayers' worst preditions.
True, the 1980s saw a lot of poaching and considerable declines in parts of Africa, and elephant range has been contracting as human populations grow, but elephant numbers in Southern Africa have been steadily growing for the last 100 years (and are still growing at around 5% per annum). The real shape of the continental trend line over the last 30 years remains a mystery for the scientists. Not so for the general public.
"Wikiality" is nothing new. Lewis Carroll put it succintly when he said "What I tell you three times is true".
Slashdot Mirror
What does it do to them? Anyone cared to test?
If it could do that, the iPhone would be touching all the right buttons.
You can't handle the truth! Chill out, go watch a movie or something. You might enjoy this one.
It's the metabaleen you're thinking about
No, that was my cat. Was that cool or what? Erwin Schroedinger
Yes, that is precisely Colbert's point - that truth itself is irrelevant when mass perception dictates otherwise. And while he may not realize it, he's picked a particularly apt example to illustrate it.
Back in 1979, famed elephant researcher Iain Douglas-Hamilton said there were 1.3 million elephants in Africa, but declining precipitously. Never mind that over a third of that figure was a complete and utter thumbsuck - and most likely a gross overestimate - or that a meeting of experts only two years later found most populations to be doing quite well. The 1.3 million figure, and the purported massive declines stuck in the public imagination and became set in stone. The dogma was further reinforced years later, when more objective researchers excluded the wild guesses and came up with estimates of around half a million elephants - thus unwittingly vindicating the doomsayers' worst preditions.
True, the 1980s saw a lot of poaching and considerable declines in parts of Africa, and elephant range has been contracting as human populations grow, but elephant numbers in Southern Africa have been steadily growing for the last 100 years (and are still growing at around 5% per annum). The real shape of the continental trend line over the last 30 years remains a mystery for the scientists. Not so for the general public.
"Wikiality" is nothing new. Lewis Carroll put it succintly when he said "What I tell you three times is true".