1/25/03 2:53:11 PM, rone at ennui.org (circadian rhyme) wrote: >Gaertk at aol.com writes: > Chris Olson - SunPS <Chrisf.Olson at Sun.COM> writes: > >_____ - _Lies My Teacher Told Me_ > This sort of thing exists? When I read _Science of > Discworld_ (by Pratchett, Stewart, and Cohen), they discussed > how school texts are full of "lies-to-students" and why, but > didn't have many examples or the true explanations. > >The classic one is the Columbus discovery of America. An oversimplification (Northmen, etc.) but surely true enough -- Columbus' trip is what opened up the era of colonization, not Erik the Red, so it seems fair to mark Columbus as the 'discoverer,' since his trip is what actually led to the large-scale effects. Calling it a 'lie' always seemed gratuitously tendentious to me. I mean, the Maya had developed the wheel, but only used it in small toys, not for wagons -- it would seem equally incongruous to say they 'invented the wheel'. But I digress. Segueing from wheels to runners, are there any references to skis, sleds, &c in the Dragaera books? Is there an equivalent of Finland, where renegade Athyra Linaan Torvus develops an 'Open Sorcery Movement'? paul e. shoot me now