Thinking Out Loud ...

** In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.

** Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

** Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.

** Tell me not that memory sheds gladness over the past; what is recalled by faded flowers save that they did not last?

** Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't.

** Don't borrow money from a neighbour or a friend, but of a stranger where, paying for it you shall hear of it no more.

** If you are never scared, embarrassed, or hurt, it means you never take chances.

** We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.

** A great deal of talent is lost in the world for want of courage.

** Being right half the time beats being half-right all the time.

** Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

** The only good luck many great men ever had was their ability and determination to overcome bad luck.
   
Tag:Thoughts

Heart To Heart, Skin To Skin

The Spanish call it the 'Kangaroo method'. It calms and stimulates new babies born by cesarian. These babies would be put, immediately after birth, still naked, on the also naked chest of the father, skin to skin, heart to heart; while the mother is being cared for and recuperating. 'kangaroo' in Spanish, apart from denoting the animal, also means 'babysitter'. This method is being practised here in Spain, when and if the father is happy and willing, with all caesarian born babies. Some fathers are even so keen as to let their new-born suckle, for comfort, and encouraged by doctors and nurses. They are instructed to talk to their babies too. Not that the little ones would understand anything of it, but apparently the familiar voice calms and comforts them, compensating for the very sudden and 'brutal' change of their environment, taken out of the warm and cosy confines of the mother's body. The skin to skin closeness lets the baby feel, not just the warmth of the father, but also his heartbeat, his breathing and gentle movements, familiar and comforting, making them feel secured. What do you think about this, Guys? Tags:Kangaroo,Babies

Current Mood: Amused

Wikipaedia Or Whiskipedia?

Navigating through Internet you come across all sorts of wiki's, pages that allow you to participate in the confection of the contents, in a great variety of views and fields. The phenomenon derived from the huge success of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia of collective elaboration which, together with Rincondelvago.com is one of the few tools that millions of people consult about every subject under the sun or even above. Also by the collective workforce, with great and positive results. There are also other smaller sites following this philosophy.

Wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning 'rapid/quick'. Ward Cunningham, creator of the WikiWikiWeb in what seems far gone days of 1994, adopted it after a trip to the Island of Oahu, that of Waikiki, Pearl Harbour and Hanauma Bay, according to Wikipedia itself. It amused him when an employee of the international airport of Honolulu urged him to take the wiki wiki shuttle that linked the terminals. Later the digital genius transformed wiki in what the Americans call brackronym, an acronym created by expanding the letters of a word already exists. So wiki corresponds to the initials of the phrase: 'What I know is'. Bet some of you didn't know that!

Without doubt, the model wiki is an example of democratising knowledge; it has it's But's. On one hand it questions the power of the encysted hierarchy universal knowledge, to me this is good; on the other hand, it makes it evident the necessity of establishing filters of quality so as not to transform this prestigious transcript into endless blunder.

That happened in WikiLingua.net boasting to be 'the biggest encyclopaedia of the world in your language'. Too many examples to list here, mostly about misinformation, or too much unnecessary information or not exactly related information, complained by a number of people writing to the media in Spain. Some of them have nicknamed it Whiskipedia.

Tags:Wikipedia,Whiskipedia

Current Mood: Accomplished