Here I am again. I bet you never even missed me.
Yesterday was a long day and today I have to do my Icelandic homework so I can't stay long. (I started classes again last week, just before I left.)
It was wonderful to have a long, non-stop conversation about life and literature as I drove with a brilliant friend (he's a good driver, too), although he swears at other drivers on the road, quite colourfully. There's always more to learn and more to check on. - not the swear words, I know most of them - but the subjects of our wide-ranging conversation. And I give as good as I get - not the swear words, but ideas. Today I have to look up things and check on information given and received. What did we do before Google and Wikipedia? Perpetuated errors, I suppose. We're still pretty good at it - spawning mistakes, I mean. We should be very vigilant.
Once a "fact" is in print, people find it hard to refute, as if paper knows more than they do. (Is this why it's called hard copy?) I think there's a certain danger to an excessive reliance on the information online. I try to check the source or find corroborating evidence, especially when a "facf" seems too good to be true. It usually is.
I've been putting quotation marks around the word "fact" to suggest that I question its validity. Better to call it a factoid. "A factoid is a questionable or spurious (unverified, false, or fabricated) statement presented as a fact , but without supporting evidence, although the term can have conflicting meanings." (Wikipedia) The frightening thing is, if it's repeated often enough, a factoid can become a fact. You have to be careful.
As if you didn't have enough to do.
The fact is, I'm back.