I really am a serious addict to Wikipedia. For 40 years I could rely on the Grand Larousse encyclopédique only which provided me with innumerable information until I entered the Internet world back in 2003 and then I discovered Wikipedia.
It was high time I could get another source of information since the encyclopaedia of my youth was increasingly becoming obsolete. Nevertheless I certainly wouldn't be who I am without these 10 (+2) books which definitively shaped and nurtured my thirst for knowledge.
Too bad we couldn't benefit from the magic of the Internet and Wikipedia in the 60s since we would be much, much more educated than we are, no doubt about it.
Don't know about you but I, for one, know that my understanding of the world, my interaction with it and eventually my intellectual compass would be a thousand times larger than what they actually are had I the opportunity to benefit this encyclopaedia on line as a teenager (sigh...)
Youngsters don't know how lucky they are. And to think a huge majority of them ignore that extraordinary education tool and waste their precious time playing video games or vainly chatting on FB...
If a new Nobel Prize were to be created, it should be one dedicated to Education and Jimmy Wales should be granted this prize the first year and Wikipedia every year till something even more wonderful would be conceived.
Like everyone else I know the shortcomings and errors one is too prone to fall victim of while browsing through Wiki. But cross-matching with other languages whatever they are, is a good remedy to said shortcomings and pitfalls.
Just an example: You may know about this but I had never heard anything about it before. There isn't even an article in French although France sent some 1.200 men over there. There are numerous links in the English article with one bite leading to another until you simply no longer can absorb one tinier bit of any data.
I couldn't benefit these marvels when I was young but I must consider myself happy that I still have the privilege to be alive and satisfy my boundless thirst of knowledge.
Epicurus
(Letter to Menoeceus)
4 commentaires:
English mistakes corrected I hope.
It's been a month since I haven't written a post in English...
There are a few mistakes if you're interested. I hesitate to correct since my mistakes in French are so numerous.
It would make more sense to saý "my consciousness of the world" perhaps, although that also sounds strange to my ear. Perhaps better would be "my understanding if" or "my knowledge of".
Too bad we couldn't benefit from the magic
There are a few other lines which seem a tad unusual, but they lend a rather French flair to what you write.
I've made the corrections you've indicated Anijo.
My conscience of the world was an horror of course.
I've deleted mandatorily which doesn't exactly exist in English.
Re the unusual lines, well if I were an Italian it would have an Italian flair and if I wrote as a Russian there would be a Russian flair I guess...
;-)
Je ne connais pas des Russes mais j'avais un ami italien et le "flair" italien et different du "flair" français. But I'll rephrase that anyway. It gives it a certain European flair.
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