Sentences We Love

[HarryT]

It's not Wiki which blocks access to China, but vice versa; lots of sites (eg the BBC News web site, too) are blocked by the Chinese government. They say that it's because they want to protect people from being corrupted by decadent Western immorality .

[mogui]

Some people use proxy software that gets around it. The big companies like Yahoo and google have to play ball to operate here.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's not Wiki which blocks access to China, but vice versa .

Yes, yes, that's what I mean, but my English gets funny sometimes (or most of the time?)

Wow!
I am very surprised and I thought Belarus is tough on its citizens and it could not be worse

[JSWolf]

Whenever a televangelist dies, a bell rings in Heaven and a room is made available in Hell.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by alex_d

oh, boy, not godel...

godel isn't wrong per se, but everyone's interpretation of his proof IS.

First of all, Godel's statement isn't "I am a liar." That's just a plain old self-contradictory statement.

Nonetheless it is a statement whose truth value cannot be decided. What Godel showed was that in any given axiom system, it is possible to construct statements whose truth value cannot be decided. Given that are physical laws are statements constructed in an axiom system, there will always be questions in that axiom system that we cannot answer, except over infinite time and I'm sorry but your analogy to Zeno's paradox is flawed. Zeno's paradox has a simple solution that comes from quantum mechanics, which imposes a fundamental length/time scale on the Universe, thus you cannot divide distances into infinitely and his paradox does not apply to our reality. There is no such resolution for Godel's Incompleteness theorem.


Rather, a Godel statement is something like "A person who says only truths will never say this sentence." Will a person who says only truths say the aforementioned sentence? If the sentence is true, he might say it. But then the sentence becomes false. If the sentence is false, he won't say it. But then the sentence becomes true.

What happens in the end? Big surprise: in the end the guy doesn't say it. The sentence is true.

However, the truth teller wouldn't have told you that. The truth teller can't even tell you what's true about his own behavior. So much for his wisdom.

And please don't go around thinking that you know what everyone's interpretation of Godel's paradox is.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by mogui

Given that as a starting point might humble us somewhat. It is one of the more important ideas of our modern era. Should we consider it unproven?

Actually, I find it quite relaxing

Yeah me too
In case I managed to confuse people, let try to me clarify:
1) In any axiom system there will exist statements whose truth value cannot be decided. That does not mean that there don't exists statements whose truth value can be decided.
2) The above statement's truth value can be decided in the axiom system that defines formal logic. It's truth value was shown to be "True" by Godel.
3) As a consequence of 1) any physical theory will always have questions whose answers cannot be arrived at. Thus there will always be things we will not, indeed can not, understand.

[mogui]

* I've been on so many blind dates, I should get a free dog.
* There is no "I" in "Team", but there are four in "Platitude-Quoting Idiot".
* Follow your dreams, except for that one where you're naked at work.
* I had amnesia once - maybe twice.
* All I ask is a chance to prove money can't make me happy.
* Wear a watch and you'll always know what time it is. Wear two watches and you'll never be sure.
* Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.
* I'm busier than a one-legged Riverdancer.
* I was happier than a kitten with a Q-tip.
* Red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.
* Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
* When someone asks you, "A penny for your thoughts," and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
* When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
* Would a wingless fly be called a walk?
* If people from Poland are called "Poles," why aren't people from Holland called "Holes?
* If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
* Heck is where people go who don't believe in Gosh.
* Time is just nature's way to keep everything from happening at once.
* Ham and Eggs - A day's work for a chicken; a lifetime commitment for a pig.
* A closed mouth gathers no foot.
* Somebody who knows how will always have a job. Working for someone who knows why.
* If you jogged backwards, would you gain weight?
* I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
* Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
* The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.
* If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?
* Some people have a way with words, others not have way.
* Drink your coffee; there are people in India sleeping.
* There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't.
* Geez if you believe in honkus.
* If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.

[NatCh]

Heh, since we're straying over the line into colloquialisms, here's my 'official' collection:

• All over him like a June-bug on a duck.
• It's hotter'n a hoar-house on nickel night.
• I'm gonna beat you like a red-headed step-child.
• It's rainin' like a cow p!$$!n' on a flat rock.
• Now you're pickin' fly-$#!^ from pepper.
• Deader'n dirt.
• That'll wake you up like a dog tongue in your ear.
• Slicker than snot on teflon.
• Shiny as a silver dollar.
• Drop off like a lead sinker.
• It's an "ideal" situation -- that's the situation and I gotta deal.
• They're just standin' around with their teeth in their mouth.
• As useless as teats on a rain-barrel.
• Off like a jug handle.
• About as graceful/balanced as a three-legged dog at a fire hydrant.
• Rough as a cobb.
• Runs like a scalded dog.
• Dead as a beaver hat.
• Busier than a one legged man in a butt-kicking contest. (that's the version I've heard )
• Tough as a boot.
• Tight as the skin on a pig's belly.
• As poor as Job's turkey.
• Ugly as a mud fence.
• Thirsty as a hound-chased fox.
• Grinning like a donkey with a mouth full of bumblebees.
• You've got a face long enough to eat corn from a coke bottle. (to a person who'd looking sad)
• Faster than grass through a goose.
• He's got plenty of postage, but he's missing the zip code.
• He can charm the gold out of your back teeth.
• Gonna stomp on you like a bull with a bee up his butt.
• Well, butter my backside and call me a biscuit.
• That didn't last as long as it took the water to get hot.
• Whipped him like a rented mule.
• Not enough (brains, talent, gumption, whatever) to wad a shotgun.
• Don't sell the skin till the bear's dead. (thanks to yvanleterrible for this one!)

[mogui]

Now we are talkin' Texasisms here. I once worked with a group of Texans. Never heard such witty conversation before or since!

[NatCh]

Some of those are from East Tennessee, as it happens, but yep, most are from Texas. I have dual citizenship, you see.

[mogui]

Some of you may not know this but the southern part of the US is known for inventive language. For example, they might describe the night as "darker than the inside of a cow". There are witty expressions for every occasion. Some of them couldn't be presented here, but most of them are in common polite usage. It is an aspect of American culture that many people do not see.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

"He's a few fries short of a Happy Meal."

[mogui]

"If his brains were gunpowder, he couldn't even blow his nose."

[RWood]

Alexander never did what he said,
Cesare never said what he did.
— Italian Proverb

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

"We are all of us Starstuff...
Life is the Universe, given consciousness."

-Delenn (borrowing from Sagan) to Sinclair, Babylon 5