Musing about rcw

"...[I]f a new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture. It is comparable to what happens when a new note is added to a melody. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture then what had appeared lucid before may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent. (Gutenberg Galaxy 1962, p. 41)" Marshall McLuhan

Arch,

You know, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I don't disagree. However, I have noticed that too many texts rely too much on pictures to tell the whole story.

I have found that if I can articulate my thoughts with the written word, then what pictures, diagrams or other illustrations I choose to provide supplement the word, rather then the other way around.

Discourse on rcw, of course, is the ultimate. I find that our collective discussions here challenge me to use clear, concise language. I strive for succinct text instead of verbose communications.

Joe Fleming - San Diego

Well Arch, I got my Sears Dunlap lathe in 1936. Tools available were for spindle turning so I made hollowing tools out of car leaf springs and very heavy duty files. Worked pretty well too.

Wally

Of course there was lead in the gas, no seatbelts in the cars and no helmets for tricycle riders then. I suppose that's what made scrapers from files seem safe then and dangerous now.

Very true, George. We didn't expect to live forever, weren't afraid of our food, took personal responsibility for what we did and didn't know we were not well off because all our friends were in the same boat. It was that walking five miles barefoot thru the snow to the unheated one room schoolhouse that we all hated.

I still have that Dunlap, but I don't turn on it and I wear shoes...at least on cold days. Nowadays, I fear egg yolks, file-scrapers, gas shortages and lawsuits, but I'm willing to assume the risk because I don't expect to live forever. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Oh yes. Without doubt. While I might snicker at a picture, or say "so... that's what that looks like" or something along those lines, it is certainly not the same as we written verbage.

I can read and completely enjoy Ambrose Bierce at just about any given time, and enjoy it each time I read anything he wrote.

The same with Samuel Clemens (aka mark Twain) of which I have read steadily since I was a nipper. As I grew older, my appreciation of his work grew as I understood there was something more to them than just a good yarn.

Pictures give a snapshot of a scene, and can sometimes help put things into a perspective that the mind alone cannot by reading descriptive text. You can read that a thousand houses were under water from Katrina, but to see a picture of only rooftops and floating cars for miles brings perspective.

A picture of a flooded house with watermarks showing how high the water actually was will impress and may cause personal reflection on how hard it must be for those that called that house home.

But well written text that tells the story of the people that lived there and how it impacted them personally, and how it affects their lives in the long term really tells the story.

I think both pictures and text have their place, each lends itself to a different purpose. I get significantly more pleasure from reading a well written, sometimes clever piece of work than I do simply looking picture.

Robert

Reminds me of a sig file I saw somewhere.

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'WOW! What A Ride!'"

I wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt (out of respect for the neighbors) until it gets below freezing - then I'll wear jeans. I've been known to eat a burger with fried egg and bacon on top and I ate at the Bolo Burger in Pasadena a few times and lived to tell about it. Frankly, I didn't expect to live this long, let alone forever. At the rate I'm accumulating replacement parts (ears, eyes, and two hips), I expect that when the engine dies they'll part me out on e-bay. :o)

Amazingly good. Also real low blood pressure. EMT techs who hauled me off after one of the tailor made hips popped out were incredulous at 120/60. Told them that was high, as I usually run 110/50. Really gets my wife bent out of shape, as she has problems with cholesterol and BP. Must be genetic.

Good genes are better than any medicine.

What's worse is medics will work like hell over a heart attack, may even lose him, than light up afterward, and drive to the Burger King for the quadruple bypass special. Bacon double cheese burger. Had a guy I worked with about a fifteen years ago who was famous for this.

Lost him ten years ago. -58

====>LOL. What sort of cholesterol levels do you have?

Leif

A man's got to know his limits.