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Posts Tagged ‘knowledge’

Those of us who support libraries, freedom, and history may find this project as fascinating as I did: The Uncensored Library.

There are a lot of ways to preserve information now, and to send a message to the future. As I mentioned here a few years ago, you can write a letter to be delivered later with FutureMe. You could bury a time capsule and register it with the International Time Capsule Society. I even wrote a story about a woman facing down the end of humanity by preserving some of its most beautiful creations for the next intelligent race.

Reporters Without Borders took a different approach. They created a virtual library inside Minecraft. Before you laugh, it’s hard to think of a better place to store and disseminate uncensored information than the world’s best-selling video game.

Providing access to independent information to young people around the world through a medium they can playfully interact with.

Here’s to knowledge, and to our future.

“We cannot shut the windows and pull down the shades; we cannot say, “I have learned all I need to know; my opinions are fixed on everything. I refuse to change or to consider these new things.” Not today. Not any more.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

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This is excellent: 

Need advice? Call these older folks for tips on love, dating and moose hunting

You can call 204-788-8060 and hear prerecorded messages from the residents on various topics. Press 1 for Carl’s advice on following your dreams. Press 3 for Randy’s wisdom on how to grow in new ways (he joined some clubs and got a girlfriend). Press 4 for guidance on surviving Winnipeg winters (if possible, don’t be there). Press 0 for Cheryl’s tips on being true to yourself (“it’s you who has to live with yourself later”).

In related “older people are awesome” news, The Thursday Murder Club movie was fun, recommend.

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“I don’t know” is not an admission of ignorance. It’s an expression of intellectual humility.

“I was wrong” is not a confession of failure. It’s a display of intellectual integrity.

“I don’t understand” is not a sign of stupidity. It’s a catalyst for intellectual curiosity.

— Adam Grant

And since we’re talking about knowledge and how to gain it, let’s hear it for libraries!

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Last night, we watched the original Ghostbusters, which is always fun. Coincidentally and just in time to inspire this post, today I ran across this article from Dan Lewis at Now I Know that opens with that film and evolves into a fascinating discussion of why firehouses have poles.

Curious horses, that’s why!

How Horses Created Firehouse Poles – Now I Know

…in the late 1870s, “David Kenyon of Company 21, an all-African-American firehouse in Chicago [. . .] reached the ground by sliding down a wooden pole normally used to bale hay for horses.” Kenyon realized that this could be made into a permanent feature…

Read the whole thing for more on why poles were not just a good idea, but critical for firefighters. Spoiler alert, it’s not just because sliding down poles is fun!

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Photo by Thiago Rocha on Unsplash

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“There is no greater weapon than knowledge and no greater source of knowledge than the written word.”

— Malala Yousatzai

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…”

― Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

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From Flash Fiction Online’s Facebook page. I can’t even say how much I love this…

Like many other committed readers and writers, I spent a significant part of my time from childhood on in public libraries. People often take them for granted now, but imagine a time (or place) where you couldn’t pop down to the corner for a book, or a consultation with a librarian, or a safe quiet place to read and work, where knowledge wasn’t freely available to all. What a wonderful invention.

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