Notices by Chikara (chikara@qoto.org)

@freemo Is it possible that the oldest ginkgo tree in Europe is alive and thriving in Utrecht?
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CONTEXT. In 1690-1692, Engelbert Kempfer worked at Japanese outpost of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). He was the physician for small group of European men on Dejima island in Nagasaki harbor.
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In 1712, an account of Kempfer's time in Japan was published in Europe. Also, he published the names and botanical descriptions of 325 previously unidentified plants native to Japan. -- see Nagata, Toshiyuki dt al. (2015). " Engelbert Kaempfer, Genemon Imamura and the origin of the name Ginkgo," Taxon. 64 (10). March 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273159910_Engelbert_Kaempfer_Genemon_Imamura_and_the_origin_of_the_name_GinkgoI; and see 1712 botanical illustration of the ginkgo below
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GINKGO IN UTRECHT.
According to Wikipedia, Kempfer was "the first western scholar to describe the tree Ginkgo biloba. He brought some Ginkgo seeds back that were planted in the botanical garden in Utrecht. The trees have survived to the 21st century." -- see "Engelbert Kempfter," Siam and Japan, 2nd paragraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engelbert_Kaempfer#Siam_and_Japan
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QUESTION? Is this trivial fact about a very hardy Japanese tree well known in Utrecht? If so, what do you know?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?

#introduction + #introductionfr
#seismology + #seismologie
#volcanology + #volcanologie
#geology + #géologie
#metallurgy + #métallurgie
#agriculture
#botany + #botanie
#garden + #jardin
#fishing + #pêche

I'm interested in these subjects in the 18th century. How do these pieces of a puzzle fit together?

Je m'intéresse à ces sujets au 18ème siècle. Ces pièces d'un puzzle, comment s'emboîtent-elles?

#citation
#lecture

@freemo The shifting POV in your words is a fresh twist -- a potentially useful restatement with consequences we cannot parse easily.

Rough translation?
Conditioning also
conditions the
conditioner = hoc mutat
ex assuetudine operum
intervenor

When I read your words, my knee-jerk reaction was in Latin -- thinking about ways in which your words suggest new insight into a couple of Latin

1. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
• Who will guard the guards themselves?
• Who watches the watchers? • Who will watch the watchmen?

2. Qui tacet consentire videtur
• He who is silent is taken to agree
• Silence implies/means consent

QOTO + PEER REVIEW = MODERATOR/GATEKEEPERS?
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Peer review is at the heart of the processes of scientific journals and all of science.
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Do we not all understand that peer review is the method by which grants are allocated, papers published, academics promoted, and Nobel prizes won?
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The peer review process has gatekeepers, not unlike our QOTO moderators -- an online fact-of-life full of problems but the least worst option we have.
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The most important question with QOTO moderator review is not whether to abandon it, but how to improve it when stumbling blocks arise.
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A. A specific QOTO issue or
problem has been clearly
identified: Moderators can't
currently read or prevent
advertisements in foreign
languages.
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B. A QOTO community vote
rejected a rule proposed to
address the problem.
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C. What next? What can
QOTO do -- what are we
willing and able to do -- to
mitigate harm caused by
doing nothing in response
to a clearly identified
problem?
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Moderator/gatekeeper review is a flawed process; but it is likely to remain central to QOTO because there is no obvious alternative,
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Going forward, QOTO will grow by learning lessons the hard way, right? And QOTO needs to figure out to do better, right?
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NOTE: This post paraphrases Smith R. Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals. J R Soc Med. 2006 Apr;99(4):178-82. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.99.4.178. PMID: 16574968; PMCID: PMC1420798; see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/

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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?