I have resolved the half full/half full conundrum.
It’s easy.
If you’re filling a glass and stop at the halfway point, the glass is half full. But if you’re drinking from a glass and stop at that same point, the glass is half empty. What?
Preguntas?
Peace,
mangeorge
Brilliant.
Now get cracking on the Middle East Peace thing and I’ll set the table for dinner.
Well, first we have to accept that there will never be a just peace in the Middle East. Someone has to “win”, and that’s simply not doable.
But if you’re able to measure it precisely enough to tell if it’s truly half, you won’t be able to control the velocity of the filling/draining so you’ll be unable to stop at the proper volume.
Or you’ll wander around the living room looking for it when it’s actually in the kitchen
Unless you define “win” as you please.
If you come upon a glass to which either of the above situations has happened, but unbeknownst to you, then which is it, eh, genius?
I prefer the engineer’s answer:
The glass isn’t half-empty or half-full. The glass is TOO BIG.
Brilliant and true, but sadly not novel. ‘depends if I’m in the process of filling or emptying it’ is the response a dear departed friend gave me to my clever glass half full or empty poser some ten or more years ago. I have a feeling he didn’t make it up for himself either.
I prefer the surly man’s answer: “Hey! This isn’t what I ordered!”
I cite the old engineer’s ten percent slide rule approximation.
Yes, that.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s to not argue with old engineers.
You investigate, non-genius. Start by seeing if there are any traces of the liquid above the present level.
And tell him to stop drinking stuff before dinner, we don’t need a repeat of thanksgiving. Mangeorge knows what I mean…"lost’ the bottle of chardonney wasn’t it?
Take off and nuke the glass from orbit - it’s the only way to be sure.
Marmite. I can’t remember where this came from originally by it was part of a think tank to solve the Arab/Israeli dispute. Apparently a lack of zinc produces aggressive behaviour and since marmite is packed full of the stuff it would stop the conflict altogether. Genius.
Optimist : The glass is half full.
Pessimist : The glass is half empty.
Engineer : The glass is too big.
Scientist : After being heated to 10,000 degrees Kelvin and the resulting plasma spectroscopically analyzed, it appears that the glass was composed of elements in these concentrations . . .
Cynic : Half empty, half full, it’s still bought with the blood of the innocent.
Green : It’s polluted anyway.
TV Preacher : It is half full, as the LORD prophesied unto me last night ! Send me your financial offerings to support the LORD’s work, and you too shall be blessed with half full glasses, unto all those who BELIEVE ! And those who doubt, those who express the SINFUL LIE that the glass is half empty, shall BURN IN HELL forever, for doubting the LORD ! AMEN ! !
Nah. Well maybe. I’d say that either the glass has an overfill safety factor of 1 (SF1), or that the glass has been designed in alignment with current FEMA storm requirements, which may be upgraded next year, requiring you to keep the glass one quarter full. And don’t ask how many reports were required to get NEPA clearance to fill the glass.
Edward De Bono’s idea, that.
And can you see the problem with that?