tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4997494801057361245.post4138710257741556930..comments2010-11-13T13:16:23.598-05:00Comments on A Lake of Stars: Microsoft's Encarta Tells Two Different StoriesGE[M]NAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07081536437774230664noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4997494801057361245.post-38863330930480857352010-01-07T00:59:11.724-05:002010-01-07T00:59:11.724-05:00I also find the idea of "relative history&quo...I also find the idea of "relative history" quite daunting. When I was a kid, I just loved learning about what happened in the past, and the idea of "history" was so simple: a person could read a collection of facts related to any particular subject and he or she would then be in posession a tremendously powerful knowledge of what happened, exactly, during that specific phase of human society. Knowledge was finite and life was easy. Now, it's just argumentation. The materialists say this, the feminists say that... learning history has become learning the history of historians.<br /><br />But that's nothing compared to English classes... (learning about post-structuralist deconstruction is guaranteed to make your head spin)... but I'll stop there before I start ranting lol. Have a good one.Mikehttp://none.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4997494801057361245.post-54189668123296442572009-12-13T17:01:25.217-05:002009-12-13T17:01:25.217-05:00Not to get too philosophical, but this is also why...Not to get too philosophical, but this is also why it's so important to be very self-aware. Know yourself well enough not to take everything at face value. Read or listen, take in said information, and then intellectually process. To add, all media has a bias to it. Fox News and CNN in the US are notorious for it. With regards to the Encarta Encyclopedia, and the factual story behind Bell being the inventor of the telephone, that's been in dispute for years to some in the US as well. If you dig a little, I'm sure you'll find that some believe an American inventor (can't recall the name off hand) beat Bell to making a 'telephone' work. Who knows for sure? Like many things, the truth often gets lost in the fog of history. We settle for what's 'commonly' believed and move on. That's very human.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4997494801057361245.post-16110772961678988342009-12-13T15:01:48.718-05:002009-12-13T15:01:48.718-05:00This is why you have to know the political biases ...This is why you have to know the political biases of the newspaper(s) you choose to read, I think. Even in much less obvious cases, the choice of language can give away so much implicit bias... if you're not aware of it, you might just absorb it. It makes it hard to read the news in a foreign country (even in a language you speak!) because you're unfamiliar with that kind of thing. Interesting post.Rachel Cotterillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08969719330048416996noreply@blogger.com