[Ads-l] Squirrels in genealogical research
Benjamin Barrett
mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM
Sun Apr 10 05:20:04 UTC 2016
I thought that was a Star Trek metaphor:
http://bit.ly/1TJtXRZ <http://bit.ly/1TJtXRZ>
The fractal issue evidently comes from “I, Borg” which was first released on May 10, 1992 according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Borg <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Borg>), though that detail doesn’t make the article. My recollection is that Captain Picard decides allowing the fractal to be used would be a violation of the Prime Directive and therefore aborts the plan.
Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
> On 9 Apr 2016, at 22:10, Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> I agree with Dave. I am very much subject to these, and in fact have coined
> a expression for what happens to me as one leads to another, which leads to
> another... I call it *going fractal*, from the action of computing /
> magnifying a fractal pattern to greater and greater depths, seeing new
> images at every step.
>
> And when I finally snap out of it and start (to mangle the metaphor)
> following the trail of breadcrumbs (frequently a series of web pages) to
> get back on my original track, I may spot another squirrel and start going
> deeper again instead of climbing back up to the top and continuing on my
> way.
>
> Mark
>
> On Apr 6, 2016 11:16 PM, "Dave Hause" <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:
>>
>> This looks to me like an analogy with the ADHD distractibility memes,
> such as at
> https://www.google.com/search?q=oh+look+a+squirrel+meme&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
>> Dave Hause
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list