I don't understand how anyone can choose to be ignorant of what is brought up in the final panel. I feel like having a basic and fundamental knowledge of the human body is incredibly important....
I don't understand how anyone can choose to be ignorant of what is brought up in the final panel. I feel like having a basic and fundamental knowledge of the human body is incredibly important. Sure, your doctor will help you to keep an eye on what you should be looking at, but there are tons of people who either don't go to a doctor or expect them to manage everything. How can you be so reliant on others or ignorant of the most important thing in your life? It's a scary thought to me, and part of the reason I was initially interested in learning biology and basic health care in the first place.
I have a basic understanding of my own body, but I have no idea about a lot of the chemical reactions that occur and how this affects the whole bunch. Its like with computers, most people...
I have a basic understanding of my own body, but I have no idea about a lot of the chemical reactions that occur and how this affects the whole bunch.
Its like with computers, most people understand the basics. A CPU, motherboard, storage medium but no idea how the actual data is being transferred and what parts are being used.
It's just seems odd to me that some basic stuff like what the kidneys and liver do aren't really taught in primary education. Many people have close to no idea how many calories they should be...
It's just seems odd to me that some basic stuff like what the kidneys and liver do aren't really taught in primary education. Many people have close to no idea how many calories they should be eating and couldn't tell you whether a particular piece of food is a source of carbs or not.
Given that we all inhabit a body, I feel like we need to do a better job teaching people how to maintain it and understand it.
Botany, zoology, human biology and general biology crammed all together in high school only, optional course? That's almost weird... The last comic panel is understandable then
Botany, zoology, human biology and general biology crammed all together in high school only, optional course? That's almost weird... The last comic panel is understandable then
People can be afraid of knowing it. Say like when you learn about an illness and you feel you have it. Frankly I'd really avoid doctors or learning/researching about sicknesses I felt for that...
People can be afraid of knowing it. Say like when you learn about an illness and you feel you have it. Frankly I'd really avoid doctors or learning/researching about sicknesses I felt for that reason. Then one day I felt like "I think I am stupid; let me be less stupid" and quit doing that. Just "breaking the ice" once got rid of the problem altogether for me.
But yeah, there are people who just don't care, and those who take pride in ignorance, which are the most annoying group for me (somewhat related anecdote: my uncle, a small businessman in the UK, wanted to Skype my grandma. Trouble is, he wouldn't ever learn how to use the damn program. We couldn't make the call for a year or so and finally he scolded us because "we're not allowing nene to talk to him". A few years later, these days, he somehow learned making WhatsApp video calls. In the meantime I started and then graduated from a bachelor's degree).
Also, if you keep an eye out on the donor page, they'll often have periods where your donation is matched 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 (particularly near the end of year / holidays). The IA is a...
Also, if you keep an eye out on the donor page, they'll often have periods where your donation is matched 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 (particularly near the end of year / holidays).
The IA is a essential part of my life as it contains a copy of nearly every Grateful Dead tape ever made, among the many other excellent services it provides.
So I've had the urge to post nearly every xkcd published since Tildes launched, but I've avoided it because it seemed to fall into the definition of "fluff" that others were using. If this is cool...
So I've had the urge to post nearly every xkcd published since Tildes launched, but I've avoided it because it seemed to fall into the definition of "fluff" that others were using.
If this is cool (and I assume it is, with it being up so long uncontested), what distinguishes it from other comics and online entertainment? Is it that xkcd is comparatively "high brow" and invites more discussion than other webcomics, or are things less restrictive than I've been thinking? What about other things that have direct entertainment value as their main reason to exist? Can particularly high quality let's plays be put in ~games? What if they're more critical in nature?
Besides agreeing @cfabbro, I should admit that I was rather perplexed when posting this, with the same questions as you pose. But I posted it anyways for two reasons As a reminder for Internet...
Besides agreeing @cfabbro, I should admit that I was rather perplexed when posting this, with the same questions as you pose. But I posted it anyways for two reasons
As a reminder for Internet Archive and that we shouldn't take it and similar stuff for granted, and help if we can.
The interesting simile in the last square b/c it is something " obvious, yet obscure". When, in the usual passing of the day, I remember how fragile and ephemeral we are, that is alwayd an inspiring realisation, and this XKCD is rather unique in having such metaphorical depth (albeit it is not by chance, the author has many similarly beautiful stuff).
For me, on-topicness here on Tildes is about how we "frame" a given thing. Something like /r/aww may do without a comment section b/c it is mostly about contemplation and direct appreciation. Any comment below is just an elaborate haha or aaaooowwww or other sort of moaning and meowing. But we can also frame something similar or even identical in a very different way and talk on it. Say the discussion Gaywallet started or the toplevel notice by cfabbro, both was what I intended with this post. Similarly, a pic of a stray cat in Istanbul can be discussed in certain ways (aversity or not to stray animals, why they are there in some places and not in others, what approach is better, why a given community is happier with stray animals around, etc). Anything that can be framed and presented and apprehended in this second manner should he on-topic here, and that would be fine as long as we are committed to not compromise certain standards that we have been and we are adhering to.
So it is more about what we do it with, rather than with what we do it.
Probably a bit of both. IMO, XKCD does tend to actually promote interesting/deep discussion far more than most other webcomics simply because of the subject matter he tends to focus on and the...
Is it that xkcd is comparatively "high brow" and invites more discussion than other webcomics, or are things less restrictive than I've been thinking?
Probably a bit of both. IMO, XKCD does tend to actually promote interesting/deep discussion far more than most other webcomics simply because of the subject matter he tends to focus on and the insight he often provides. And while I can't speak for everyone, for me that is the crux of what makes something fluff or not. To me, "Fluff" is content that has very little potential for sparking said discussion about the content or subject the content is focused on. Interesting/deep discussion may take place in the comments section of a meme or cat pic, but let's be honest here, it is incredibly unlikely and more often than not when it does happen is completely off-topic and unrelated to the content itself. So (again just IMO) something being entertaining or made mostly for entertainment purposes doesn't necessarily make it fluff, regardless of the medium it's presented in, so long as it has that potential to spark interesting/deep discussion.
So, would LPs count as fluff? A lot of them probably would, yes. E.g. As much as I love Game Grumps, they are definitely LPers I would consider almost entirely fluff. And I am honestly struggling to think of an LPer I wouldn't generally consider fluff. However slightly outside the LP sphere but still game related, there are tons of content producers I wouldn't consider fluff at all since, as you said, they tend to focus more on criticism, exploring/dissecting game mechanics, etc... which actually does have the potential to spark interesting/deep discussions on those subjects.
That's just my 2ยข and personal interpretation on fluff, anyways. I am sure it differs for almost everyone here and I doubt we will ever reach complete consensus on a definition. So, best to just submit stuff you find interesting, see what the response is like and play it by ear from there, I guess.
I don't understand how anyone can choose to be ignorant of what is brought up in the final panel. I feel like having a basic and fundamental knowledge of the human body is incredibly important. Sure, your doctor will help you to keep an eye on what you should be looking at, but there are tons of people who either don't go to a doctor or expect them to manage everything. How can you be so reliant on others or ignorant of the most important thing in your life? It's a scary thought to me, and part of the reason I was initially interested in learning biology and basic health care in the first place.
I have a basic understanding of my own body, but I have no idea about a lot of the chemical reactions that occur and how this affects the whole bunch.
Its like with computers, most people understand the basics. A CPU, motherboard, storage medium but no idea how the actual data is being transferred and what parts are being used.
It's just seems odd to me that some basic stuff like what the kidneys and liver do aren't really taught in primary education. Many people have close to no idea how many calories they should be eating and couldn't tell you whether a particular piece of food is a source of carbs or not.
Given that we all inhabit a body, I feel like we need to do a better job teaching people how to maintain it and understand it.
We had 2 years of human biology at school. And it was so unpopular among students. Do any schools completely lack that course?
At my high school it was an elective which many people did not take and it was biology as a whole, not human biology.
Botany, zoology, human biology and general biology crammed all together in high school only, optional course? That's almost weird... The last comic panel is understandable then
Yeah it is a serious oversight in educational planning
People can be afraid of knowing it. Say like when you learn about an illness and you feel you have it. Frankly I'd really avoid doctors or learning/researching about sicknesses I felt for that reason. Then one day I felt like "I think I am stupid; let me be less stupid" and quit doing that. Just "breaking the ice" once got rid of the problem altogether for me.
But yeah, there are people who just don't care, and those who take pride in ignorance, which are the most annoying group for me (somewhat related anecdote: my uncle, a small businessman in the UK, wanted to Skype my grandma. Trouble is, he wouldn't ever learn how to use the damn program. We couldn't make the call for a year or so and finally he scolded us because "we're not allowing nene to talk to him". A few years later, these days, he somehow learned making WhatsApp video calls. In the meantime I started and then graduated from a bachelor's degree).
"which could disappear at any time..."
In the case of the Internet Archive you can actually help prevent that! --> https://archive.org/donate/
Also, if you keep an eye out on the donor page, they'll often have periods where your donation is matched 2-for-1 or even 3-for-1 (particularly near the end of year / holidays).
The IA is a essential part of my life as it contains a copy of nearly every Grateful Dead tape ever made, among the many other excellent services it provides.
So I've had the urge to post nearly every xkcd published since Tildes launched, but I've avoided it because it seemed to fall into the definition of "fluff" that others were using.
If this is cool (and I assume it is, with it being up so long uncontested), what distinguishes it from other comics and online entertainment? Is it that xkcd is comparatively "high brow" and invites more discussion than other webcomics, or are things less restrictive than I've been thinking? What about other things that have direct entertainment value as their main reason to exist? Can particularly high quality let's plays be put in ~games? What if they're more critical in nature?
Besides agreeing @cfabbro, I should admit that I was rather perplexed when posting this, with the same questions as you pose. But I posted it anyways for two reasons
As a reminder for Internet Archive and that we shouldn't take it and similar stuff for granted, and help if we can.
The interesting simile in the last square b/c it is something " obvious, yet obscure". When, in the usual passing of the day, I remember how fragile and ephemeral we are, that is alwayd an inspiring realisation, and this XKCD is rather unique in having such metaphorical depth (albeit it is not by chance, the author has many similarly beautiful stuff).
For me, on-topicness here on Tildes is about how we "frame" a given thing. Something like /r/aww may do without a comment section b/c it is mostly about contemplation and direct appreciation. Any comment below is just an elaborate haha or aaaooowwww or other sort of moaning and meowing. But we can also frame something similar or even identical in a very different way and talk on it. Say the discussion Gaywallet started or the toplevel notice by cfabbro, both was what I intended with this post. Similarly, a pic of a stray cat in Istanbul can be discussed in certain ways (aversity or not to stray animals, why they are there in some places and not in others, what approach is better, why a given community is happier with stray animals around, etc). Anything that can be framed and presented and apprehended in this second manner should he on-topic here, and that would be fine as long as we are committed to not compromise certain standards that we have been and we are adhering to.
So it is more about what we do it with, rather than with what we do it.
Probably a bit of both. IMO, XKCD does tend to actually promote interesting/deep discussion far more than most other webcomics simply because of the subject matter he tends to focus on and the insight he often provides. And while I can't speak for everyone, for me that is the crux of what makes something fluff or not. To me, "Fluff" is content that has very little potential for sparking said discussion about the content or subject the content is focused on. Interesting/deep discussion may take place in the comments section of a meme or cat pic, but let's be honest here, it is incredibly unlikely and more often than not when it does happen is completely off-topic and unrelated to the content itself. So (again just IMO) something being entertaining or made mostly for entertainment purposes doesn't necessarily make it fluff, regardless of the medium it's presented in, so long as it has that potential to spark interesting/deep discussion.
So, would LPs count as fluff? A lot of them probably would, yes. E.g. As much as I love Game Grumps, they are definitely LPers I would consider almost entirely fluff. And I am honestly struggling to think of an LPer I wouldn't generally consider fluff. However slightly outside the LP sphere but still game related, there are tons of content producers I wouldn't consider fluff at all since, as you said, they tend to focus more on criticism, exploring/dissecting game mechanics, etc... which actually does have the potential to spark interesting/deep discussions on those subjects.
That's just my 2ยข and personal interpretation on fluff, anyways. I am sure it differs for almost everyone here and I doubt we will ever reach complete consensus on a definition. So, best to just submit stuff you find interesting, see what the response is like and play it by ear from there, I guess.
XKCD on the front page, this IS old reddit, hahaha.