You are very unique Rory, very unique!

My fave, and I am guilty of saying it once in a while: "Very true" or "completely true" or "totally true." Something is either true or it is not. This is a binary situation we are dealing with. "It's like being pregnant - you either are or you are not" is a phrase I hear people use when countering the addition of superlatives to binary adjectives.

The word "same" apparently has multiple meanings as well. I recently received an e-mail from my boss that stated "This year's project planning will be the same as years past." The next paragraph highlighted everything being done differently this year.

Well there's subtleties to be read to which "full" they mean:

very full flight = don't ask if you can change your seat, because we'll tell you no

going to be extremely full = get your ass back where you belong and if you brought on an oversized bag, we will put you and the bag in the lower hull

completely full flight = change seats, bring extra stuff on the plane, or cause me any grief and we will kick you in the nads

At least that's been my experience of travel.

I just thought I'd swing by and add a *totally random* comment..

Don't get me started on unique. Fairly unique, totally unique, and all the rest of the redundant modifiers. Why do we want to add useless words to emphasise a point that doesn't require emphasis?

Can I start another thread on the fact that people use "different than" when they mean "different FROM" ?!?!?!

How can something be nearly infinite. Something that is Nearly infinite is still finite, and thus infinitly smaller than something that is infinite. So when dealing with infinities, something that is nearly infinite and something that is the size of a small hamster named franklin, are mathimatically = to 0 when compared with something that is truly infinite.


on a side note, Macromedia's Authorware has two versions you can install. Full and Complete. I'll leave it to the philosphers as to which is bigger.

Mathematically, it is possible to compare infinities. You can have larger infinities and smaller infinities, although all of them are infinite.

For example, the set of integers is a smaller infinity than the set of real numbers.

I like this thread "so very much".

Rory, you are a gift to modern science; a cure for disease, since laughter heals.

Sorry to disagree with you Jason but having had a son who was born two and a half weeks late, I can tell you for a fact that there is such a thing as Very Pregnant.

Matthew -

"How can something be nearly infinite."

By being really close, but only missing it by [holding fingers closely together] *this much*!

Brian -

"For example, the set of integers is a smaller infinity than the set of real numbers."

[bullshit detector]

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

[/bullshit detector]

Prove it!

P.S.

I believe you. I just like saying "prove it" to math types :)

I love the internet.

http://www.fact-index.com/c/ca/cantor_s_diagonal_argument.html

QED.

and in your example, 'this much' would still be infinite. like the number of rational numbers between 0 and 1.

If the universe is only half infinite, will it only take half the time to cross it? Or will an infinite amount of monkies fly out of my ass....infinitely uncomfortable. :)

Rory: I am assuming that it was a female saying "we have a very full flight today". I say this because women tend to use intensifiers when they speak (sooo, very, extremely). A male would simply say "we are full today".

Jason Bunting: clever to pick up on the binary oppositons, however language is arbitrary. Binary oppositions do not exist (at least I argue). For example, True and False - it could be partially right.
Black and White - there could be a mix between the colours
Male and Female - there are transgendered people that don't fit into either category.
Nothing is either one or another.

Melissa F: Actually things are true or false. This "partially right" thing is matter of definition of what "right" is. There is not partially right. Either it is right or it is not right - getting close to right doesn't work.

And while you were the one to come up with the straw men arguments, I will bite - who said Male and Female are opposites? Who said they were binary? My original statement was about a binary situation. Either something is true or false. If it is not 100% true, it would then be false. Apparently you are not a programmer. Either someone is male or they are not. Either someone is female or they are not. If you are trans, you are NOT a female and you are NOT a male, by definition. Something is either Black or it is not. Dark Gray is not black. Either something is white or it is not. So, your argument seems, at first glance, to make sense - but in reality we are not talking about the same thing.

And I stand by my argument about the "very pregnant" thing - either you are pregnant or you are not - being overdue doesn't mean you are any more pregnant that someone 3 months pregnant.

:P