Posts by Bart Janssen
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I was just thinking, ya know how Russell has a Friday tradition of music and video blogs ...
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to BenWilson,
Yet another of Emma's threads devolves into a discussion of dicks.
A trend perhaps Emma? Just sayin'
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Russell Brown,
That’s just rude.
Yeah he could at least share them with you
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Rich Lock,
until we both look like tremendous dicks to everyone else
Or we could just skip that part and have everyone think you are tremendous dicks for five minutes.
Would save time for everyone really :P.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
I have been a colossal ass on the internet before
Sorry Bart, but I really don't believe you.
I'd like to deny it but it is most definitely true. As Megan says you can try and learn from the mistakes and work hard to not repeat them. Fortunately my worst asshood is buried in some well buried newsgroups before the days of google and an e-mail group that no longer exists. And no that isn't a challenge for someone to find it, my memory is quite enough thank you.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Jolisa,
Thank you Jolisa for your ridiculously kind assessment. As for the kittens sorry but having two kittens on shoulders at the same time results in even more scratches than I have already - kitten claws are VERY sharp!
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I used to lurk here too. Then I sent an e-mail or two to Russell commenting on something in his column or passing on an experience to him, which he could use or ignore as he saw fit. He replied sometimes which was cool. I understood he has a LOT to read on any day and replying to everything would be too much to expect. Then he quoted something I'd written to him, which was neat, yes I did get that warm glow you get from having someone acknowledge your experiences.
Then there was a thread or two where I could contribute my experience and people agreed and disagreed and ignored. And then somewhere along the line I was posting pretty regularly.
Now I don't expect every lurker to follow that path or even want to choose that path. But there was nothing particularly scary along that path at all.
Well that isn't true because there was one scary thing - me. Because I have been a colossal ass on the internet before - and I really didn't want to be that ass again. And I can get somewhat er passionate about some things and I know I can be er brusk at times. For me that is the only scary thing about this community. Sometimes what I say will be ignored (TLDR) sometimes people will disagree with me, vigorously even, but none of that matters providing I can avoid being a total ass - well most of the time at least :).
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
But humans as a group can and do declare war on others
Yes I agree when you get humans in groups the behaviour of the group often seems to drop to the lowest common denominator, which is also true when a group is trying to agree on a restaurant.
And I also think you're right that having no connection makes it easier to be an arsehole.
But I still firmly believe that most people, on first contact with a stranger, are nice. Most people we meet are decent. Most people we meet are fair.
That why I hate rules based on the assumption everyone will be selfish arseholes, because in my experience that isn't true.
But there are definitely arseholes out there and a percentage of humans who really are happy to screw over others (I call them accountants but that's me being mean).
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
But isn’t that absolutely what happens? Humans behave, often, appallingly badly towards people they have no connection with – people they don’t know – whereas when they do know them, because there’s a connection there’s a disinclination to be offensive.
No that isn’t true. Humans generally behave well socially towards each other even when faced with complete strangers.
But there is a small percentage of people who are arseholes. Antisocial/selfish/whatever general scummy behaviour you like to think of.
The problem is that it is always much much easier to remember the scum and yet if you stop and think about it most of the people you interact with whether you know them or not are at first contact nice – well except when they are driving on Auckland roads.
Even here on the internet the majority of folks are nice to complete strangers but it’s the minority of arseholes that are memorable.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Islander,
Great I dont have twitter!
Yeah I thought that too and then I discovered I can get my scientific journal tables of contents via twitter. So now I have a twitter account that alerts me to new science, on my iPad.
But I probably should two accounts so I can separate Emma from Plant Physiology.