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Joined: Jan 2001
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OP
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In latest Scientific American there is an excellent article: Skeptic - Skepticism as a Virtue. You can find it online at www.sciam.com. On left side click on Current Issue scroll down three quarters, and on right of two columns find the title. Only one page, but I enjoyed it very much.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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Thanks wwh Clickable version: http://www.sciam.comstales
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old hand
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old hand
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So which one of you wants to be known as The King of Sciam?
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OP
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Dear Fiberbabe: If I am the King of Sciam, will you be my Anna?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dr. Bill,
I thought I was your Anna [pout]
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
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A good read. The website - www.skeptic.com is certainly mows down all those half-truths you pick up, as is www.urbanlegends.com - that is if you believe in any of that stuff [grin]. What's the story with the 'c' and 'k' in sceptic. I have always written it with a 'c', I guess because the 'k' would have made me think I was writing in German (schaut skeptisch:-|). 'K ' is of course, as the artikle(!) states from Greek and the 'c' form from Latin. It is quite rare that we find this Greek form though, [question tag]? I can only think of 'sk' in a few words - none of Greek origin either, I think.
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OP
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Dear by: my dictionary gives both, and says "sceptic" is chiefly British.
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oh no, dr. bill! don't tell me you'd go with the latter-day 4th sense of skeptic! -joe (the cynic) friday http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Dear joe (gone to the dogs) friday: I cannot fathom fourth meaning of your dictionary.
Blame the "k" on the old lexicographer: &hand; This word and its derivatives are often written with c instead of k in the first syllable, -- sceptic, sceptical, scepticism, etc. Dr. Johnson, struck with the extraordinary irregularity of giving c its hard sound before e, altered the spelling, and his example has been followed by most of the lexicographers who have succeeded him; yet the prevalent practice among English writers and printers is in favor of the other mode. In the United States this practice is reversed, a large and increasing majority of educated persons preferring the orthography which is most in accordance with etymology and analogy. Syn. -- Infidel; unbeliever; doubter. -
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Carpal Tunnel
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dear bill, it's not my dictionary -- I refer you to your URL.
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