Unsurprisingly, the counter-factual school of historians rarely discusses what might have happened had Generals Kornilov, Denikin and Yudenich triumphed instead of Lenin and Trotsky.
A first step toward this might be taken through the fostering of an energetic and highly enlightened press corps and educational establishment, doing all it can to provide the world's broadcasters, newspapers, and schools with factual information and illuminating editorials that could increase awareness of the world system as a whole.
When studying an entire population (e.g., all program directors, all deans, and all medical schools) for factual information, do not perform statistical tests.
Cases are much more about knowing the laws that can apply, often from codes, and understanding the factual principles than law schools would suggest through their strained analogies to court opinions (and those in some outlying famously controversial cases they teach about, perhaps for that reason).
For millions of people, Wikipedia is a quick and easy way to settle a factual disagreement or research a school paper.
Most school pages sport factual profiles: class sizes, enrollment, courses, college placement figures and faculty degrees.
While a school could provide factual information about sexual orientation to a student who does not receive it elsewhere (e.g., that it is normal to be straight, bisexual or lesbian/gay), schools in Alabama, Texas and other states with anti-LGB sex education laws become yet another place that serves up homophobic messages.
This has resulted in pressure on the undergraduate curriculum to expose students to an ever-growing body of factual information prescribed by medical school admissions requirements, sometimes at the expense of deep understanding of fundamental concepts.
Peru State College has revoked a speaking engagement offer to Greg Mortenson, author of the memoirs Three Cups Of Tea and Stones Into Schools, after the factual accuracy of the books was called into question by 60 Minutes.
He said: "The aim is to give people what they want; more information about the school system that is factual, robust and in a consistent professional format.
Another complained that his child had been told the creation story from Genesis was "factual" during visits to a primary school in the West Midlands from a local minister.
