What Is 'Approximate' for Adv Purposes?

[Watson A.Name - \Watt Sun, the Dark Remover\]

"Mjolinor" ["an Englishman who goes to the US a lot"] wrote ...

I can only base it on the people I have talked to about it.
I suppose they tend to be mid 20s to mid 30s and hail from
the top right hand side (Boston, New York and surrounding
areas). Not exactly a representative sample I suppose but it
was just an example.

The USA is somewhat larger (amd more diverse) than the UK.
For that matter my little state (Oregon) is a bit larger than the
UK. Don't judge all of us by those NE elite snobs.

I thought every one in the US lived in the NE or Miami

They live in Miami for awhile and then a hurricane comes along and blows
them away, and they're scattered back all over the U.S...

 

[Michael A. Covington]

In what way? Seems like with just about everything, the first ones are
the ones that get the glory.

But the Mayflower Pilgrims weren't the first. The first successful English
colony was Jamestown, 13 years earlier.

 

[Mjolinor]

Duh. You can't know what you don't know. Nobody can.

I beg to differ.

I don't know how to make a wormhole and I know that I don't know how to do
it along with loads of things, in fact I think I probably know of more
things that I don't know about than things that I do know about.

 

[Michael A. Covington]

I beg to differ.

I don't know how to make a wormhole and I know that I don't know how to do
it along with loads of things, in fact I think I probably know of more
things that I don't know about than things that I do know about.

Exactly. One of the things I probe for, when giving a graduate student a
final oral examination, is whether I can get a clear and definite "I don't
know" when I ask a question that is outside the student's area of knowledge.

 

[Rich Grise]

I beg to differ.

I don't know how to make a wormhole and I know that I don't know how to do
it along with loads of things, in fact I think I probably know of more
things that I don't know about than things that I do know about.

<aol>Me, Too.</aol>

Since there are only two things in the Universe, Me and Not-Me, when
I know Me, then I'll automatically know Everything Else, since all
it is is what's not Me.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Watson A.Name \Watt Sun - the Dark Remover\]

in message


But the Mayflower Pilgrims weren't the first. The first successful English
colony was Jamestown, 13 years earlier.

Yeah, with the emphasis on successful and English. Here, in LaLa Land,
It took more than 200 years after 1542 when Cabrillo first claimed
California for Spain, until the Spanish missionaries started
colonializing the coast. But nobody much cares about that in the rest
of the U.S.

 

[Watson A.Name \Watt Sun - the Dark Remover\]

I beg to differ.

I don't know how to make a wormhole and I know that I don't know how to do
it along with loads of things, in fact I think I probably know of more
things that I don't know about than things that I do know about.

I said "You can't know what you don't know." I did _not_ say "You can't
know that you don't know!" DUH!

 

[Watson A.Name \Watt Sun - the Dark Remover\]

Exactly. One of the things I probe for, when giving a graduate student a
final oral examination, is whether I can get a clear and definite "I don't
know" when I ask a question that is outside the student's area of knowledge.

Yeah, but I thought that for the grad student, the standard reply is
"that's outside the scope of this dissertation."

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Michael A. Covington wrote: knowledge.

Yeah, but I thought that for the grad student, the standard reply is
"that's outside the scope of this dissertation."

Yes. Or "that's outside the scope of my program of study" when they're
being examined on courses (and we're supposed to have a list of the
courses).

But it's often remarkably hard to get that answer! People will make up
bizarre wrong answers rather than admit ignorance..

 

[R. Steve Walz]

Yeah, with the emphasis on successful and English.