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On 12/22/2011 4:57 PM, Annabelle Thiebaux wrote:
> I find it interesting if that counts!
* threads that are of more interest to some subscribers than to others
is a chronic problem on e-mail lists, and a deeper problem is the
different way different readers process texts.
Some of us can placidly delete, each day, hundreds of messages about
particular birds at particular feeders, facebook "likes," vicariance vs
dispersalist biogeography, and the hours at which branches of the Ottawa
library system are open, while others are overwhelmed by a list that
provides a dozen or so messages per day.
It's a natural and almost universal failing of humanity to assume that
others' minds work in the same way one's own does, while in fact there's
wide variation in mental processes, which is papered over by the use of
uniform language to communicate the results of mentation. This
diversisty was first explicated by the work of Julian Jaynes -
http://www.julianjaynes.org/ - which I reference here as a sesonal gift
to the list, though I learned it some years before Jaynes' publication
by marrying a woman whose thoughts are images, and must be translated
into English for transfer to others, while mine originate as English words.
E-mail list-serves are a medium congenial to those of us adept at
scanning text and with the DELETE button, and it may help those who are
overwhelmed by them to think of the subject line as the message, and the
text as a kind of optional footnote. I delete everything with "CBC" or
"Christmas count" in the subject line, for example, because I know
there's not much chance I could contribute to such a discussion.
For those of us that can skim through masses of messages, the lesson
here may be to change the SUBJECT line when the subject of discussion
changes, as was done on this thread.
fred.
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> On 22/12/11 11:27 AM, Christopher Majka wrote:
>> I'm sorry but this is clearly a topic of considerable interest to a
>> number of naturens subscribers.
>>
>> If you are not interested, feel free to press the delete key and read
>> other posts that are of interest to you.
>>
>> C.G.M.
>>
>> On 22-Dec-11, at 11:13 AM, Elizabeth Doull wrote:
>>
>>> Can we wrap up this rather lengthy debate and move on?? thanks.
>>>
>>> liz
>>>
>>
>>
>
--
fred
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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