Scientists find a link between low intelligence and acceptance of 'pseudo-profound bulls***'
Those who are impressed by wise-sounding quotes are also more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and the paranormal
A new scientific study has found that those who are receptive to pseudo-profound, intellectual-sounding 'bulls***' are less intelligent, less reflective, and more likely to be believe in conspiracy theories, the paranormal and alternative medicine.
PhD candidate Gordon Pennycook and a team of researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, tested hundreds of particiapants to make the link, detailing their findings in a paper entitled 'On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bulls***', which mentions the word 'bulls***' exactly 200 times (surely some sort of record).
Defining bulls*** is a tricky task, but Pennycook and his team tried their best in the paper.
As an example, they gave the following 'pseudo-profound' statement: "Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty."
The paper says: "Although this statement may seem to convey some sort of potentially profound meaning, it is merely a collection of buzzwords put together randomly in a sentence that retains syntactic strcuture."
"Bulls***, in contrast to mere nonsense, is something that implies but does not contain adequate meaning or truth."
So Now Everything Is Google's Fault
Washington Post - United States
Now he's back again, this time targeting Google. Thank God the bloggers are here to call bullshit because the journalists, fearing their own looming ...
hc舊文
「二○○四年秋天，日本全國六百家書店一起舉辦了「Comic Essay書展」 …….「Comic Essay」顧名思義是漫畫（comic）和散文（ essay）的混合創作，………輕鬆幽默的劇情加上或爆笑或溫馨的漫畫表現，Comic Essay類型讀物在日本獲得許多女性讀者的支持。」（〈日本：閱讀風潮
(其實，你參觀fortune.com雙周刊，就有篇所謂 photo essay的--
HEWLETT-PACKARD: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE What FORTUNE Said About Carly
It has been just over six years since Carleton S. Fiorina, now 50, burst upon the national stage and we will acknowledge straight out that FORTUNE played a role in putting her name in lights. In 1998, FORTUNE ranked her No. 1 on its first-ever ranking of the 50 most powerful women executives in the U.S., and that was the end of her quasi-obscurity. In the pages that follow, see highlights from our coverage…)
我們查一下線上辭典。我想goo辭典對於essay的解釋大體抓到重點 (英文 from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)：
━━ n. （文芸上の）小論, 試論; 評論, 随筆; 試み ((at, in)).━━ essay (ATTEMPT) verb [T] OLD-FASHIONED 此「嘗試」義為本來意思（如胡適的『嘗試集』（詩？）） v. 試みる, 企てる. to try to do something:例The procedure was first essayed in 1923.
essay (WRITING) UK noun [C] (US paper) --重點：essay可以說是「（專題）小論文」
a short piece of writing on a particular subject, especially one done by students as part of the work for a course:例：For homework I want you to write an essay on endangered species.
essayist ━━ n. 日本 随筆家.【或許誤譯】a person who writes essays that are published:
a political essayist
****
essay question：論文式（テスト）問題.。我猜這是「「小問題」之『大哉問』」，最近的例子是美國某名大學
bull (NONSENSE) noun [U] INFORMAL
complete nonsense or something that is not true:
Don't give me that bull about not knowing the time
bullshit Show phonetics
exclamation, noun [U] OFFENSIVE
complete nonsense or something that is not true:
Bullshit! He never said that!
He gave me some excuse but it was a load of bullshit.
bullshit Show phonetics
verb [I or T] -tt- OFFENSIVE
to try to persuade or impress someone by saying things that are not true:
You're bullshitting me!
Quit bullshitting, will you!
bullshitter Show phonetics
noun [C] OFFENSIVE
這種約670頁的書，中文世界很少「嘗試」。
The work is called "On Bull - - - - ."
The opening paragraph of the 67-page essay is a model of reason and composition, repeatedly disrupted by that single obscenity:
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much [bull]. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize [bull] and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry."
****中文有不少解釋 essay之所以為 essay，其中有許多人有慧見。
近來，Stephen Owen（宇文所安）幫自己的書『追憶：中國古典文學中的往日再現』（Remembrances）再/ 新（三聯）版（2005）寫的前言，最能說明 essays之妙哉：「…… 英語essay則可以把文學、文學批評以及學術研究……重新融為一體。……. 」
***** 了解法國『蒙田文集』（娓娓道來的（論文））和英國『培根（論
夏濟安選編『名家散文選讀』台灣英文雜誌社（原為香港『今日世界』出版）
王佐良.編譯《並非舞文弄墨：英國散文新選》出版社：香港, Oxford University Press, Inc.【王佐良先生編過一本『英國散文的流變』，不過這是從史的角度出發
梁宗岱等翻譯『蒙田』（如『我不想樹立雕像』北京：光明日報……."梁宗岱全集"）
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