Wolery

At home today I was bemoaning the ease with which Semantic Web
presentations become momentarily derailed by the slide entitled 
"The OWL Web Ontology Language" (and permuations thereof), which
generates mutterings of "is that a recursive acronym?" etc etc.

My children seem to think this is just a problem for grown-ups.
Anyone familiar with A A Milne's Winnie the Pooh books knows that
Owl is spelt "W O L".

	"He could spell his own name WOL, and he could spell 
	Tuesday so that you knew it wasn't Wednesday..."

Indeed, there seems to be some further insight into the notion 
of ontology in that passage from House at Pooh Corner (more 
below).

BTW The Wolery was Piglet's house, where Owl lived after "The 
Chestnuts" blew down.

:-)

-- Dave

"Owl," said Rabbit shortly, "you and I have brains.  The
others have fluff.  If there is any thinking to be done in  
this Forest - and when I say thinking I mean thinking - you 
and I must do it."
        "Yes," said Owl.  "I was."
        "Read that."
        Owl took Christopher Robin's notice from Rabbit 
and looked at it nervously.  He could spell his own name 
WOL, and he could spell Tuesday so that you knew it wasn't 
Wednesday, and he could read quite comfortably when you 
weren't looking over his shoulder and saying "Well?" all 
the time, and he could----
        "Well?" said Rabbit.
        "Yes," said Owl, looking Wise and Thoughtful.
        "I see what you mean.  Undoubtedly."
        "Well?"
        "Exactly," said Owl.  "Precisely."  And he added, 
after a little thought, "If you had not come to me, I 
should have come to you."
        "Why?" asked Rabbit.
        "For that very reason," said Owl, hoping that 
something helpful would happen soon.
        "Yesterday morning," said Rabbit solemnly, "I 
went to see Christopher Robin.  He was out.  Pinned on 
his door was a notice!"
        "The same notice?"
        "A different one.  But the meaning was the same. 
It's very odd."

Received on Friday, 20 September 2002 15:19:27 UTC