[WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)

Fri Dec 22 13:58:39 UTC 2006

> From: Sarah <slimvirgin at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)
> To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at wikipedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<4cc603b0612212250s7013522en8eb03e740941dcee at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 12/21/06, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > No, you absolutely cannot do that, for reasons eloquently stated
> > > elsewhere. The claim that it is not in the Cornell University
> Library
> > > is a novel conclusion based on your own original research; this
> seems
> > > so trivially obvious to me that it astonishes me that others
> would
> > > claim otherwise. You might as well promote a novel claim in
> physics,
> > > and point people to the calculations you have made to prove your
> > > theory. If a reliable source says "the book is not found in the
> > > Cornell University Library", then quote them. Otherwise, move on.
> >
> > What's novel about "It doesn't appear on the such results,
> therefore
> > it isn't in the library"? Seems like an obvious conclusion to me...
> > (might not be 100% reliable, depending on search terms, accuracy of
> > the library's index, etc, but that doesn't make it novel).
> 
> You may have made a mistake. Or it may be in the library but not in
> the catalogue, or vice versa. That you conducted the search yourself
> makes publication of your results OR. We publish the mistakes of
> reliable sources, not of Wikipedians. :-)

The fact that mistakes might happen doesn't make it OR.  You have
to show how looking up a library catalogue is fundamentally
different from looking up something in a book.  I don't think you
have done that.  I think that an error in a library catalogue is not
really a different problem from an error in a book, and an error in
consulting the library catalogue is no different from an error in
consulting the book.

To me, these are logically indistinguishable:
1. "Joe Blow died in 1923. [Franky: Joe Blow, A worthless life]"
2. "Library of Congress has the 1923 edition. [LofC catalogue]"

I think these negative assertions are indistinguishable too:
1. "Franky's biography of Joe Blow doesn't say when he died
    [Franky: Joe Blow, A worthless life]"
2. "Library of Congress doesn't have the 1923 edition.
    [LofC catalogue]"

Zero.

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