🚀 go-pugleaf

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This article is from <harvard!rclex!cdx39!jc>
 and was received on Fri Jun 20 15:41:27 1986
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> To which I say, the term isn't "unused knowledge", it's "trivia".  The
> bookstores are loaded with books full of the stuff.  Most information is
> of little value when it's fresh; and of no value when it's stale.

On the other hand, stale and/or trivial information can often be of great 
value.  Consider the story from the 70's of the guy who finally found out 
why he had never been able to get any research support from Federal funding 
agencies.  It turned out that he was considered a potential subversive, 
because back in the forties, his future father-in-law had for about six 
months subscribed to a communist publication.

Yea, stale trivia can truly be of great import in a man's life!

Has anyone ever heard a follow-up on this?  The last I heard, he was 
supposedly trying to instigate a lawsuit against the feds involved, but it 
wasn't clear that he could even legally claim that he had been "harmed" by 
the information, and since he had to admit that it was true ...

[Assigning 'value' to information is quite hard!  Consider the example
 herein, or the times when you've assimilated some seemingly worthless
 information only to find it very useful later on...  -- Dave]