> >>When I was a whelp in Philadelphia, there was a rash of kids suffocating
> >>in old refrigerators during a big garbage strike one summer. Hide-and-seek
> >>You can tell kids all you want, but some are still going to play on the
> >>train tracks, in old refrigerators, in dumpsters...
> >The only thing is this instance that seems to really work is to fine anyone
> >the puts out a fridge without removing the door hinges. Children by
> >definition cannot be expected to obey rules, regardless of the rule.
> I dunno; it seems to me as though natural selection would take care of the
> problem better. Any kids dumb enough to get trapped inside a refrigerator
> don't reproduce, and therefore the defective self-preservation gene doesn't
> get passed on. Darwin would be proud!
I duno - The darwin part isn't completly wrong, just we're talking
about social evolution - the genes are way to slow to catch up with
the concept of a door (not to speak about a fridge) - BUT if the
specimin is in an environment where thinking (and learning) is
disencuraged, you'll never evolve (sidelines where a failiure to
interact allow learning are inherently doomed).
> Beats the hell out of wrapping the
> whole world in padding and taking away everything that might possibly kill
> some moron. Historically, it's been things like rockets, guns, swingsets,
> mercury switches, fireplaces, and all the really good fireworks that The
> Establishment has deemed too dangerous for us unwashed masses to play with.
> Wonder how long until some loser chokes on a mouse ball or strangles himself
> with the cord while trying to plug in his new business card scanner and mice
> are required to come with warning labels?
Well, thare's a feedback mechanism: the growing number of analphabets ...
Of course there is more - I had the pleasure to stay a long time
next to the consol screen of a dial up mailbox during the 80s.
One may be right to assume that the guys (and few gals) using
this kind of service, _way_ before the pubic even noticed stuff
like 'networks', have been the forerunner of geekhood, and
therefore able not only to read, but also to understand and
follow directions. WRONG. I can't count the number of thimes
they called for help on subjects like 'how do I break out of
menu xxx' even when there was a menu item 'press X to leave',
or 'how do I skip the help scree' wehn the first line of the
help message was 'X to skip message... You're realy getting
sick of it and loose all trust in mankind.
Gruss
H.
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Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Fri Feb 11 2000 - 06:45:56 GMT