User:Art LaPella
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I'm Art LaPella. Born in 1951. I live near Seattle, USA. When I was a kid I did well in most any class that didn't require an essay, but essays made me feel almost suicidal, because I didn't feel I had anything worth saying until I was about 30. Now it's a lot easier, although I haven't written any Wikipedia articles. I did write http://www.quantumonline.com/InvestmentRisks.cfm elsewhere. But mostly, I get a kick out of just skimming thru for typos, spelling etc., and many of the articles are fun to read anyway. When everyone else misses simple errors like these on what is currently Wikipedia's most heavily edited page, I almost feel as if I'm creating Wikipedia by myself. But I should really be getting back to my real job. That's playing the stock market, controlled by a program I wrote and keep maintaining.
I occasionally notice something scientific that should be added or corrected, or some bad statistics. Every once in a while I come to a place where there's a Point Of View I've always wanted to express -within the rules of course. Here's one right now: I don't mean "POV". I hate most acronyms, because the time saved among those who understand them is often cancelled by the time lost by those who don't, and most acronyms are more driven by vanity than efficiency.
Here are my Points Of View on the screamier subjects no one ever agrees on: I lost my faith, but I still believe in traditional ethics, most anyone's traditional ethics, justified as kinship altruism rather than spirituality. So what you think is hostility could be what I think is justice. It would be nice if ethics could be taught rationally, but often one gets a better understanding of human interactions from the religious extremists than from the political correctness cult that has taken over the "social sciences". Honesty is part of both religion and the scientific method, but dishonesty in religion is called faith, and dishonesty in science is called political correctness. I often agree with Ayn Rand, but I don't call myself Objectivist, mainly for fear of being mistaken for a dogmatic true believer.
Also see the end of a page from my wife's genealogy website, http://lapella.net/wordstorylapellaartkathy.doc .
[edit] "Encyclopedic" obscurity
Bill Gates died and went to the pearly gates. Saint Peter said "We've been waiting for you", presenting a key with the name "Bill Gates" on it. Gates confidently inserted his key into the gate to unlock it. His confidence fell suddenly to concern, as the key wouldn't turn. Concern yielded to panic as he wiggled the key and the gates, and frantically looked all over his key. The key had a help button that said: "I've got great news! Now for the first time with Key version 6.6.6, you have the power to choose your own interface between the key's tumbler pins, the encryption algorithm, and the QXZ! Enter your interface's identifier or its alias in the field below."
