Great Quotes III: Source and Context are Key

[Phrossack]

“The automobile, which began as a transportation convenience, has become a bloody tyrant (50,000 lives a year), and it is the responsibility of the park service, as well as that of everyone else concerned with preserving both wilderness and civilization, to begin a campaign of resistance.”

-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, 1968

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"When a book is called 'Guns, Drugs, Hookers, and No Pants' I think I don't need to read it."
-Abdul Amir, The Ballad of Gay Tony

 

[Mouthwash]

"Read no book written by, or co-authored with, a journalist."

-Nassim Taleb

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Italics are the author's.

"Questions of the form Can the Internet do X? come in two categories. One kind makes good sense to ask: These questions ask what the Internet can do from a technological standpoint. Can the Internet provide a flexible, multipurpose, nearly real-time communication channel between Boise, Idaho, and Omsk, Russia? Yes. Can it beam physical matter from Point X to Point Y? No.

The wrong kind of question asks whether the Internet can cause positive social change. Can the Internet encourage world peace? Can the Internet end poverty? Can the Internet defeat Putin? At the most basic level, the answer is obviously no. It’s people who would cause world peace, or end poverty, or bring true democracy to Russia."
-Kentaro Toyama, "The Trouble With Sweeping Questions About the Internet", The Atlantic

 

[Kyriakos]

Italics are the author's.

"Questions of the form Can the Internet do X? come in two categories. One kind makes good sense to ask: These questions ask what the Internet can do from a technological standpoint. Can the Internet provide a flexible, multipurpose, nearly real-time communication channel between Boise, Idaho, and Omsk, Russia? Yes. Can it beam physical matter from Point X to Point Y? No.

The wrong kind of question asks whether the Internet can cause positive social change. Can the Internet encourage world peace? Can the Internet end poverty? Can the Internet defeat Putin? At the most basic level, the answer is obviously no. It’s people who would cause world peace, or end poverty, or bring true democracy to Russia."
-Kentaro Toyama, "The Trouble With Sweeping Questions About the Internet", The Atlantic

That isn't a great quote, though. 'Can the internet defeat Putin'? How about the internet defeating the closer oligarchs in the west, emirite?

(and even barring that, the above quote is quite the platitude imo).

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

That isn't a great quote, though. 'Can the internet defeat Putin'?

That's exactly what the quote is about, that such questions are stupid.

 

[Kyriakos]

That's exactly what the quote is about, that such questions are stupid.

Pretty sure you intentionally did not note that the quote's author just happens to conveniently name Putin (instead of, well, Obama/Bush/Hilary etc). It is not chosen to be a generic example of some issue not solvable by the web

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The quote's author got the Putin question from another article (an opinion piece in the New York Times), if you actually took the time to read the context of the quote you are getting hot and bothered about.

 

[Phrossack]

Just remember, Hillary Clinton is the real threat, because reasons

 

[bhsup]

Well, back in 93 the reason was HillaryCare, but Obama pretty much negated that worry.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Perhaps a re-draft of the question will improve things a bit. "Can the Internet stop Hillary Clinton?".

 

[Kyriakos]

^It can, by using the wonderful tech of photography

 

[Kyriakos]

Τι τάχιστον; Νους. Διά παντός γαρ τρέχει.
(What is fastest of all things? Thinking is, for it runs through/in between everything).

Thales the Sage has spoken

 

[Arakhor]

The Norse thought that too, as shown in the story where Thor and Loki are in Utgard and Thor's servant Thjalfi competes in (and loses) a race with Hugi, thought itself.

 

[Kyriakos]

^But (iirc) those myths started circulating in the Norse at least 1000 years after Thales and his 7th century BC

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Are there any Greek influences on Norse mythology? What does scholarly work say about the flow of Greek ideas into Northern Europe?

 

[Kyriakos]

Are there any Greek influences on Norse mythology? What does scholarly work say about the flow of Greek ideas into Northern Europe?

Golden Greek ideas and signs were flowing to the Norse through nomismata paid to the Varangians since Basil II's rise to power

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I can agree with signs being transferred by money. Ideas probably need something more for their transfer, like written materials or interpersonal communication.

 

[bhsup]

Well it's a little known fact that The 13th Warrior is actually based on the true tales of Diokles the little shepherd boy who fell in with some Vikings, traveled to the land of fjords and shield maidens and helped them overcome an ancient evil.

 

[Kyriakos]

Well it's a little known fact that The 13th Warrior is actually based on the true tales of Diokles the little shepherd boy who fell in with some Vikings, traveled to the land of fjords and shield maidens and helped them overcome an ancient evil.

Best Banderas role

(most of his rest were quite crap anyway...).