• Blashber (unregistered) in reply to OzPeter
    OzPeter:
    Abdiel:
    Texas drought ends [...] due to 6 months of rain.

    One could argue that one day of rain would be enough to technically end a drought.

    One could argue that, but one would be wrong. Droughts are defined in terms of average rainfall over periods of time. So if you had 10 years of well below average rainfall (as compared to say the previous 50 or 100 years) and then one day of excessive rainfall, followed by 10 years of below average rainfall, then the drought would not have ended on that day. However, you might have had a flood.

    Almost..... Droughts are defined in terms of availability of water. This is usually caused by below average rainfall, but below average rainfall alone does not necessarily constitute a drought.

    Captcha: 'appellatio' has anyone not heard all the jokes on this one?

  • Jools (unregistered) in reply to Roger
    Roger:
    BSDPwns:

    The expression "same difference" should stop being used.

    Moving on... comparing two events with 'same difference' is correct logic in that the difference from event A to event B is identical to the difference from event B to event A. Grammatically you are redundandtly saying that event A and event B differ in some way from each other. You should say, 'SAME THING'.

    I think it comes from the fact that the difference between A and B in your argument is the same as the difference between A and B in my argument.

    I say say the difference between A and B is X. You say its X+1. I think "meh, that difference is near enough the same" and say "Same Difference." See? Makes perfect sense.

    also: If A and B are the same, then the difference between them (nothing) is the same. Hence Same Difference.

    Further, I don't think 'Same difference' has ever been used in context - rather it's an oxymoron that has deliberately been created to imply 'Same thing dickhead'.

  • Little Stevie (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    I was talking to someone from Texas once and we had some obligatory small talk about the weather, I guess I said something about hearing that a drought was supposed to end soon. He replied, "I hope it does rain. Not so much for me, but for my son. I've seen rain."
    I call shenanigans. That's not how texans talk. I could understand that.
  • Johnno (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    RE the climatologist: News reporters have a bizarre and incredible respect for "experts". Surely anyone who had been outdoors in the last six months could tell that it had rained enough to end the drought, but they have to call it an "expert" to validate this.

    The reporter's personal political beliefs or other biases become "news" if he can find one "expert" somewhere who agrees with him. Like, few reporters would dream of going on the air and saying, "Senator Jones plan to fight unemployment sounds like a good idea to me." But, "Charles Fromme, an economist with the XYZ Foundation, says that Senator Jones plan," etc is routinely reported as news, even if the XYZ Foundation was founded by friends of Senator Jones for the purpose of pushing his economic plans.

    And the craziest ideas become serious subjects of debate if the person saying them has a PhD. If I called ABC news and said that aliens made a crop circle in my back yard, I would be dismissed as a kook. But if some PhD who wrote a book on UFOs says that he believes crop circles are made by aliens, now it becomes a serious scientific theory.

    And they are immediately impressed by people who write books (PhD or not).
    I've often seen interviews where the 'experts' only qualification seems to be '...written a number of books on the topic.' I suppose that shows the expert has an opinion, but doesn't necessarily mean that they know what they're talking about.

    Anywho, I'm going back to Gary to learn PHP - He's coauthored a book on the topic.

  • The 2-Belo (unregistered) in reply to ContraCorners

    Betelgeuse Betelgeuse Betelgeuse

    .... It's showtime.

  • Ian (unregistered)

    Wow... I'd really like some C$60-70 18-year old single malt...

  • sota (unregistered) in reply to SQLDave
    SQLDave:
    BSDPwns:
    The expression "same difference" should stop being used.

    Moving on... comparing two events with 'same difference' is correct logic in that the difference from event A to event B is identical to the difference from event B to event A. Grammatically you are redundandtly saying that event A and event B differ in some way from each other. You should say, 'SAME THING'.

    The other genius part is that the juxtaposition of TWO opposites clarifies your meaning very well; sarcasm. Stop saying it please!

    I could care less.

    Theirs a whole nother debate your trying to start.

  • Rope (unregistered)

    HAL9000> Computer \ANDSKVP01792 cannot be managed because it is not running Windows NT. Would you like to manage it anyway?

    Dave> Yes, please.

    HAL9000> Computer \ANDSKVP01792 is currently in use. User on computer \ANDSKVP01792 has written a long document and only saved it on local drive. Would you like me to install Windows NT on computer \ANDSKVP01792 now?

    HAL9000> Dave?

    Dave> Sure. Go ahead, HAL.

  • captain karate (unregistered) in reply to Quirkafleeg
    Quirkafleeg:
    SQLDave:
    BSDPwns:
    The expression "same difference" should stop being used. […]
    I could care less.
    Well, yes, since you clearly care enough to respond, caring less is an option…

    i'm glad you guys are so hot on this kind of thing today; i could easily have picked up all kinds of nasty non-literal figures of speech otherwise. great job.

  • (cs)

    I think babies are too young (under 18) to use Adobe products.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to sota
    sota:
    SQLDave:
    BSDPwns:
    The expression "same difference" should stop being used.

    Moving on... comparing two events with 'same difference' is correct logic in that the difference from event A to event B is identical to the difference from event B to event A. Grammatically you are redundandtly saying that event A and event B differ in some way from each other. You should say, 'SAME THING'.

    The other genius part is that the juxtaposition of TWO opposites clarifies your meaning very well; sarcasm. Stop saying it please!

    I could care less.

    Theirs a whole nother debate your trying to start.

    If we banish all phrases from our language that are not literally correct and completely unambiguous, we will have a hard time speaking at all. Especially as software people. Does the computer really have "memory" in the same sense that a human being does? Does it actually have digits, i.e. fingers, on which to count? As I can write an expression involving AND's and OR's that makes no sense, why do you call it "logical"? Etc.

    Well, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree here. I think I'll just circle the wagons and let the chips fall where they may.

  • Drak (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    BSDPwns:
    The expression "same difference" should stop being used.

    So you're trying to say that the expression "same difference" should somehow take some sort of action so people do not use it anymore?

    Maybe you meant 'People should stop using the expression "same difference"'?

  • (cs) in reply to Drak
    Drak:
    BSDPwns:
    The expression "same difference" should stop being used.

    So you're trying to say that the expression "same difference" should somehow take some sort of action so people do not use it anymore?

    Maybe you meant 'People should stop using the expression "same difference"'?

    Do you not know the difference between passive and active verbs?

    A passive verb like "being used" implies that others will take action upon it. The subject is the recipient of the action, not the doer. Active verbs are preferred, but there's nothing wrong with the post you quoted.

  • (cs)

    Damn. Nevermind.

  • hi (unregistered) in reply to snoofle

    ur dumb

  • Math-tician (unregistered) in reply to BSDPwns

    Technically, the difference between A and B may not be the difference between B and A. For example if A = 5 and B = 1 then A - B != B - A.

  • ⇈⇊←→←→BA (unregistered) in reply to JoeB
    JoeB:
    The Bytes must flow.

    Been reading articles backward, and was sad that no one replied to this, so even nearly four years later, I will:

    I'd make a comment about bitworms, but considering this site's subject, worms tend to be digital already.

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