May this meme never die
March 27, 2024 6:49 PM Subscribe
How many days are in a week?
The debate began on 2008, on the forums of bodybuilding.com, when a user asks ‘ Is it safe to do a full body workout every other day?’ The answer is yes…the question is, if you do that, how many times a week are you working out? (Trigger warning for words some people thought it was ok to use in 2008, and fatphobia).
This discussion has legs, though, we’re not done, and links to this thread resurface again and again over the intervening years.
In 2015 Vice follows up and gets an opinion from a mathematician to settle the matter.
In 2016 Jon Bois releases an 18 minute video analysis with recreated graphics. (Previously)
In 2019 a poster at Hackernews points out that this is a classic programming off-by-one fencepost error, explored in this article titled Learning How to Count (Avoiding The Fencepost Problem)
And in 2023 your correspondent came across it when Aja Romano, senior writer at Vox, calls it their Roman Empire : ”my roman empire may honestly be that ancient wrestling forum thread debating the # of days in the week. I think about that thread, and about how hard it is to explain and grasp the concept of zero as it relates to linear time and space, all the time.”
This discussion has legs, though, we’re not done, and links to this thread resurface again and again over the intervening years.
In 2015 Vice follows up and gets an opinion from a mathematician to settle the matter.
In 2016 Jon Bois releases an 18 minute video analysis with recreated graphics. (Previously)
In 2019 a poster at Hackernews points out that this is a classic programming off-by-one fencepost error, explored in this article titled Learning How to Count (Avoiding The Fencepost Problem)
And in 2023 your correspondent came across it when Aja Romano, senior writer at Vox, calls it their Roman Empire : ”my roman empire may honestly be that ancient wrestling forum thread debating the # of days in the week. I think about that thread, and about how hard it is to explain and grasp the concept of zero as it relates to linear time and space, all the time.”
I posted this bc I was telling my husband about it and he asked me ‘how many notes are in an octave?’
posted by bq at 7:16 PM on March 27 [13 favorites]
posted by bq at 7:16 PM on March 27 [13 favorites]
That thread is probably in the training set for LLMs.
I think about that sometimes.
posted by biogeo at 7:29 PM on March 27 [44 favorites]
I think about that sometimes.
posted by biogeo at 7:29 PM on March 27 [44 favorites]
'how many notes are in an octave?’ has a simple escape that isn't available to days-of-the-week imo: octaves, consisting of 8 notes, overlap one another. And you don't have to get too pedantic to see that the first and the 8th note, while being perfect multiples of each other in frequency, are each distinct "notes".
posted by CookTing at 7:38 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
posted by CookTing at 7:38 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Reminds me of my high school history teacher in ~1992, saying that he didn't believe the official Kennedy assassination story because it had LHO firing three shots in six seconds, which is only two seconds per shot.
When I got older and learned about fencepost errors, I realized that it's three seconds per shot.
posted by Hatashran at 7:44 PM on March 27 [18 favorites]
When I got older and learned about fencepost errors, I realized that it's three seconds per shot.
posted by Hatashran at 7:44 PM on March 27 [18 favorites]
he asked me ‘how many notes are in an octave?’
Depending on how the piano is tuned, maybe 88?
I keed. That is actually a great parallel because an octave, you're going pinky to thumb, same to same'. But in a week... I mean, you go to church every Sunday but you go to church once a week. So is that the same as when you're play scales you play a C every scale? Are the days of the week the same as the scales on a piano, spiraling every upward until you reach the end of the keyboard and then have to do them all backward all the way back down the piano and then repeat doing them all the way back up the piano and then all the way back down the piano... and then you move up one note and begin a different scale with entirely different fingering that you play all the way up the keyboard and then all the way back down the keyboard and then all the way back up the keyboard and then all the way back down the keyboard... and you keep doing this with every scale for an hour... and then you take out your Hanon exercise book and begin your hour with that...
Is that how weeks work? #TooManyYearsOfPianoLessons
Eventually you get to play really music... eventually....
posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on March 27 [3 favorites]
Depending on how the piano is tuned, maybe 88?
I keed. That is actually a great parallel because an octave, you're going pinky to thumb, same to same'. But in a week... I mean, you go to church every Sunday but you go to church once a week. So is that the same as when you're play scales you play a C every scale? Are the days of the week the same as the scales on a piano, spiraling every upward until you reach the end of the keyboard and then have to do them all backward all the way back down the piano and then repeat doing them all the way back up the piano and then all the way back down the piano... and then you move up one note and begin a different scale with entirely different fingering that you play all the way up the keyboard and then all the way back down the keyboard and then all the way back up the keyboard and then all the way back down the keyboard... and you keep doing this with every scale for an hour... and then you take out your Hanon exercise book and begin your hour with that...
Is that how weeks work? #TooManyYearsOfPianoLessons
Eventually you get to play really music... eventually....
posted by hippybear at 7:44 PM on March 27 [3 favorites]
I love the octave example because it is like the name is trolling you. It’s not called a SEPTAVE, people!!
(Yes, fine, it’s actually twelve if you are not constraining yourself to a single major scale, but that’s less funny.)
posted by eirias at 7:53 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
(Yes, fine, it’s actually twelve if you are not constraining yourself to a single major scale, but that’s less funny.)
posted by eirias at 7:53 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
if this didn’t happen fifteen years ago i would think this is a classic example of “smooth sharking”.
Probably on my mind as a friend pointed (no pun intended) me to this recent example (in which another friend participated to my great amusement).
posted by supercres at 7:53 PM on March 27 [11 favorites]
Probably on my mind as a friend pointed (no pun intended) me to this recent example (in which another friend participated to my great amusement).
posted by supercres at 7:53 PM on March 27 [11 favorites]
There are an infinite number of notes in an octave.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:57 PM on March 27 [9 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:57 PM on March 27 [9 favorites]
I was expecting that link to be about the heat death of the universe, but that's a much shorter time scale. I approve of this much more pessimistic view of things!
posted by hippybear at 8:10 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 8:10 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
The Dumbest Boy Alive is quite possibly the finest piece of work in the early years of Jon Bois.
As a series, I miss Pretty Good.
posted by deezil at 8:14 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
As a series, I miss Pretty Good.
posted by deezil at 8:14 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
LHO firing three shots in six seconds, which is only two seconds per shot.
When I got older and learned about fencepost errors, I realized that it's three seconds per shot.
true? as Oswald fired 3 shots in roughly 6 seconds. The first round was cambered and the first shot acts as the chronological frame. I suppose it's 2 shots in 6 seconds.
posted by clavdivs at 8:20 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
When I got older and learned about fencepost errors, I realized that it's three seconds per shot.
true? as Oswald fired 3 shots in roughly 6 seconds. The first round was cambered and the first shot acts as the chronological frame. I suppose it's 2 shots in 6 seconds.
posted by clavdivs at 8:20 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Ahhhh, never seen that bodybuilding thread before. It’s the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks, truly. I literally laughed out loud a bunch of times. You are the dumbest boy alive. Jump off a bridge. .
It’s too late now but I definitely will be checking out the other links. Thanks for this!
posted by ashbury at 8:21 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
It’s too late now but I definitely will be checking out the other links. Thanks for this!
posted by ashbury at 8:21 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
I thought there would be bodybuilders.
posted by Czjewel at 8:47 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
posted by Czjewel at 8:47 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
true? as Oswald fired 3 shots in roughly 6 seconds. The first round was cambered and the first shot acts as the chronological frame. I suppose it's 2 shots in 6 seconds.
ohboyohboyohboy
posted by logicpunk at 8:48 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
ohboyohboyohboy
posted by logicpunk at 8:48 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
And with the introduction of the Kennedy assassination as part of the topic, he judiciously closed the MetaFilter tab.
posted by hippybear at 8:56 PM on March 27 [21 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:56 PM on March 27 [21 favorites]
Of course the measurement of Oswald's firing rate obviously depends on how many shooters there were.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:06 PM on March 27 [8 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 9:06 PM on March 27 [8 favorites]
There's an extremely large number of pitches in an octave but not every pitch is a note. The number of notes is an arbitrary constant pegged by convention, usually somewhere from a handful to forty something.
Anyway, this is only interesting and hard if you refuse to specify it and insist on nebulous words. The mathematician makes short work of it without hesitation, on a cold call.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:08 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
Anyway, this is only interesting and hard if you refuse to specify it and insist on nebulous words. The mathematician makes short work of it without hesitation, on a cold call.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:08 PM on March 27 [4 favorites]
It's important to recall that Oswald was on a spaceship moving at a large percentage of c, so subjectively he had very little time to make the shots.
posted by agentofselection at 9:11 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
posted by agentofselection at 9:11 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
If Lee Harvey Oswald can fire 3 shots in 6 seconds, how many shots can two Lee Harveys Oswald fire in 3 seconds?
posted by 0xFCAF at 9:28 PM on March 27 [6 favorites]
posted by 0xFCAF at 9:28 PM on March 27 [6 favorites]
that it's three seconds per shot.
(fetches calculator)
with missing 3 seconds, each Oswald fires two shots, if both Oswald's have only six seconds they can fire six shots.
posted by clavdivs at 9:45 PM on March 27
(fetches calculator)
with missing 3 seconds, each Oswald fires two shots, if both Oswald's have only six seconds they can fire six shots.
posted by clavdivs at 9:45 PM on March 27
If Lee Harvey Oswald is on a train leaving New York travelling at a speed equal to the number of times you can work out every other day in one week, and a second shooter is on a train leaving LA at a speed equal to the number of notes in an octave, then how many licks does it take for them to meet at the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop? (Ignoring air resistance but not the effects of time dilation.)
posted by Flaffigan at 9:59 PM on March 27 [11 favorites]
posted by Flaffigan at 9:59 PM on March 27 [11 favorites]
13.87
oddly the amount of cash on him when arrested.
runs
posted by clavdivs at 10:17 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
oddly the amount of cash on him when arrested.
runs
posted by clavdivs at 10:17 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
'how many notes are in an octave?’ has a simple escape that isn't available to days-of-the-week imo: octaves, consisting of 8 notes, overlap one another.
If I tell you I've got a 3 octave range, and the lowest note I can sing is an E, what is the highest note I can sing?
What's the highest note if I say, "Well, actually I've got a 2½ octave range."
posted by straight at 10:23 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
If I tell you I've got a 3 octave range, and the lowest note I can sing is an E, what is the highest note I can sing?
What's the highest note if I say, "Well, actually I've got a 2½ octave range."
posted by straight at 10:23 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
I'd seen the 'Dumbest Boy Alive' video before but had never noticed that Jon texts himself a YouTube link at one point. The video has been removed from the internet, but the Internet Archive still has it and it's a slightly longer version of the Pretty Good episode about the Music City Miracle.
posted by Kattullus at 12:12 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
posted by Kattullus at 12:12 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
someone posted the "plane on a conveyor belt" question to a big FB group this morning and I got to enjoy it fresh all over again. the best bit is when the dads start angrily pulling out obscure plane facts to dig themselves deeper
posted by Klipspringer at 12:40 AM on March 28 [3 favorites]
posted by Klipspringer at 12:40 AM on March 28 [3 favorites]
If Lee Harvey Oswald is on a train leaving New York traveling at a speed equal to the number of times you can work out every other day in one week, and a second shooter is on a hyperloop leaving Las Vegas at a speed equal to the number of notes in an octave, then how many licks— then explain why this is ominous news for Joe Biden on Guernsey.
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 12:53 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 12:53 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
Apropos of dumb, I'm watching Resident Alien and peak Alan Tudyk is just the most wonderful kind of stupid.
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 12:57 AM on March 28
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 12:57 AM on March 28
Can we please not call a habitable planet with a breathable atmosphere a spaceship? I blame Disney.
One of my favorite things about the Kennedy investigation is a debunker, I think from the Warren commission trying to say that it was impossible for Oswald to fire, reload, aim, fire, reload, aim and fire in six seconds.... Except he's holding a rifle, mimics the actions, and does exactly what he's disdaining in five seconds.
Also, wind can lift planes from a standstill on the ground. It's all about airspeed over the wings, not ground speed. So yes, the conveyor doesn't matter.
But enough controversy, I hear there's free bananas in the break room.
posted by Jacen at 1:08 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
One of my favorite things about the Kennedy investigation is a debunker, I think from the Warren commission trying to say that it was impossible for Oswald to fire, reload, aim, fire, reload, aim and fire in six seconds.... Except he's holding a rifle, mimics the actions, and does exactly what he's disdaining in five seconds.
Also, wind can lift planes from a standstill on the ground. It's all about airspeed over the wings, not ground speed. So yes, the conveyor doesn't matter.
But enough controversy, I hear there's free bananas in the break room.
posted by Jacen at 1:08 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
the question is, if you do that, how many times a week are you working out?
I have yet to dip into the learned argumentation, but anybody who says anything other than three and a half times per week is obviously just wrong. A workout every other day is seven workouts every two weeks, therefore three and a half workouts per week. I don't understand why this was ever controversial.
Off to find out.
posted by flabdablet at 2:58 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
I have yet to dip into the learned argumentation, but anybody who says anything other than three and a half times per week is obviously just wrong. A workout every other day is seven workouts every two weeks, therefore three and a half workouts per week. I don't understand why this was ever controversial.
Off to find out.
posted by flabdablet at 2:58 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
Having now found out, I can only admire TheJosh's heel turn and subsequent commitment to the bit.
posted by flabdablet at 3:16 AM on March 28 [6 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 3:16 AM on March 28 [6 favorites]
I have yet to dip into the learned argumentation, but anybody who says anything other than three and a half times per week is just wrong.
Except you never do three and a half workouts. It's only three and a half on average. You could just add happily describe what you actually do, which is three or four workouts a week, alternating.
posted by Dysk at 3:17 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]
Except you never do three and a half workouts. It's only three and a half on average. You could just add happily describe what you actually do, which is three or four workouts a week, alternating.
posted by Dysk at 3:17 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]
The correct, idiomatic answer is "3 or 4 times a week mate". Answering 3.5 is some dweeb shit.
posted by Klipspringer at 3:19 AM on March 28
posted by Klipspringer at 3:19 AM on March 28
How many days are in a week?
Some people say that 7 is a lucky number, but it's got nothin' on 6.999... infinitely repeating.
posted by swr at 3:32 AM on March 28
Some people say that 7 is a lucky number, but it's got nothin' on 6.999... infinitely repeating.
posted by swr at 3:32 AM on March 28
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:53 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]
Except you never do three and a half workouts.
Sure I do! Every week.
For the sake of keeping the measurements consistent, the specific weeks I'm talking about are the ones that either begin or end exactly halfway through my Sunday workout.
So the schedule over two weeks looks like
Sunday: last half of a workout
Monday: rest
Tuesday: workout
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: workout
Friday: rest
Saturday: workout
Sunday: rest
Monday: workout
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: workout
Thursday: rest
Friday: workout
Saturday: rest
Sunday: first half of a workout
You can easily see that every Sunday..Sunday week has three and a half workouts in it.
posted by flabdablet at 3:58 AM on March 28 [13 favorites]
Sure I do! Every week.
For the sake of keeping the measurements consistent, the specific weeks I'm talking about are the ones that either begin or end exactly halfway through my Sunday workout.
So the schedule over two weeks looks like
Sunday: last half of a workout
Monday: rest
Tuesday: workout
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: workout
Friday: rest
Saturday: workout
Sunday: rest
Monday: workout
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: workout
Thursday: rest
Friday: workout
Saturday: rest
Sunday: first half of a workout
You can easily see that every Sunday..Sunday week has three and a half workouts in it.
posted by flabdablet at 3:58 AM on March 28 [13 favorites]
The average person has less than two legs.
posted by AlSweigart at 4:18 AM on March 28 [9 favorites]
posted by AlSweigart at 4:18 AM on March 28 [9 favorites]
Just yesterday I was told about a minor ordeal in the Mario 64 speedrunning community. In one category, runners aren't measured by speed to complete the game but by number of A button presses. One runner claimed that they finished a level in 3.5 button presses. The half button press is because they press the A button down before the level starts and only release it after the level begins.
Arguments broke out. Square wave graphs were drawn.
posted by AlSweigart at 4:22 AM on March 28 [17 favorites]
Arguments broke out. Square wave graphs were drawn.
posted by AlSweigart at 4:22 AM on March 28 [17 favorites]
So the Beatles' "8 Days A Week" was not a real song?
posted by DJZouke at 5:04 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
posted by DJZouke at 5:04 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
I use the "Wonderland Jam Rule" for working out every other day: "Exercise yesterday, exercise tomorrow, but never exercise today!"
posted by Daily Alice at 5:09 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
posted by Daily Alice at 5:09 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
I remember the first time I saw the Bois video. It nearly killed me, no exaggeration. Top tip: don't eat and read.
I need to see that Mario 64 thread now though.
posted by BCMagee at 5:09 AM on March 28
I need to see that Mario 64 thread now though.
posted by BCMagee at 5:09 AM on March 28
flabdablet and Dysk, you have given me an experience I hadn't realized I was missing: the experience of being a bystander during the thread in question.
posted by brainwane at 5:23 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 5:23 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
(I just think it's important to state that you're referring to an average of that's what you're doing. I have maybe a tenth of a pint of beer a week on average, but I don't have a tenth of a pint of beer a week.)
posted by Dysk at 5:39 AM on March 28
posted by Dysk at 5:39 AM on March 28
Assume a perfectly spherical body-builder...
posted by wenestvedt at 5:53 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 5:53 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
I worked at bodybuilding.com on and off between 2010 and 2015, and boy howdy was that a weird place. There was a 90 day get buff challenge for the employees, and when they succeeded they had a pro photo shoot where they got oiled up. And then those photos - big prints of them - were hung in the hallway. So every time I went to visit their office, I was treated to weird oily glamour shots of the people I worked with.
Also, the first time I ever visited their office the kitchen was filled with boxes of "Ejaculoid." That is a, uh, "volumizer."
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:16 AM on March 28 [15 favorites]
Also, the first time I ever visited their office the kitchen was filled with boxes of "Ejaculoid." That is a, uh, "volumizer."
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:16 AM on March 28 [15 favorites]
I have maybe a tenth of a pint of beer a week on average, but I don't have a tenth of a pint of beer a week.)
In my part of English, yes you do. Where I live, "X a week" means the same thing as "X per week" and refers to the ongoing rate at which X happens, expressed in units of week-1 (which I can of course convert to SI units as 1.65µHz).
If you were to tell me that you don't have a tenth of a pint every week, or even each week, that's a different thing entirely. That's a habit description rather than a rate specifier.
But this is all moot. Fact is, I do work out both three and a half times a week and three and a half times every week, per the schedule above. Prove me a liar, I dare you.
posted by flabdablet at 6:17 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
In my part of English, yes you do. Where I live, "X a week" means the same thing as "X per week" and refers to the ongoing rate at which X happens, expressed in units of week-1 (which I can of course convert to SI units as 1.65µHz).
If you were to tell me that you don't have a tenth of a pint every week, or even each week, that's a different thing entirely. That's a habit description rather than a rate specifier.
But this is all moot. Fact is, I do work out both three and a half times a week and three and a half times every week, per the schedule above. Prove me a liar, I dare you.
posted by flabdablet at 6:17 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
The whole problem is 1-based vs 0-based counting.
‘how many notes are in an octave?’
I really don't want to think of "the size of an octave" in terms other than either Hz or cents, and to me a note is an event in time rather than a pitch. But okay, let's simplify this to white keys on a piano. To play a one-octave C major scale requires 8 piano keys: CDEFGABC. But there are 7 intervals between them. If you think of the lowest C as "0", you're playing 01234567.
How many inches in a foot? Nobody will claim it's not 12. If you look at a ruler, there's not always a "0" marker but it's implicit; including both ends of the ruler, there are 13 "whole inch" markers for those 12 inches.
posted by Foosnark at 6:48 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
‘how many notes are in an octave?’
I really don't want to think of "the size of an octave" in terms other than either Hz or cents, and to me a note is an event in time rather than a pitch. But okay, let's simplify this to white keys on a piano. To play a one-octave C major scale requires 8 piano keys: CDEFGABC. But there are 7 intervals between them. If you think of the lowest C as "0", you're playing 01234567.
How many inches in a foot? Nobody will claim it's not 12. If you look at a ruler, there's not always a "0" marker but it's implicit; including both ends of the ruler, there are 13 "whole inch" markers for those 12 inches.
posted by Foosnark at 6:48 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
So, what you are saying is that there are 13 notes in an octave?
posted by surlyben at 7:17 AM on March 28 [4 favorites]
posted by surlyben at 7:17 AM on March 28 [4 favorites]
If you were to tell me that you don't have a tenth of a pint every week, or even each week, that's a different thing entirely. That's a habit description rather than a rate specifier.
There are no weeks in which I have a tenth of a pint of beer! It's not that I don't have a tenth each week, it never happens. I have a beer maybe every ten weeks. That is the same as a tenth of a beer each week on average, but it is not the same as having a tenth of a beer a week.
posted by Dysk at 7:24 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
There are no weeks in which I have a tenth of a pint of beer! It's not that I don't have a tenth each week, it never happens. I have a beer maybe every ten weeks. That is the same as a tenth of a beer each week on average, but it is not the same as having a tenth of a beer a week.
posted by Dysk at 7:24 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
(Bob Belcher voice): "Oh my god."
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:28 AM on March 28 [9 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:28 AM on March 28 [9 favorites]
from the 2015 Vice article:
What good is becoming an expert when you'll only converse with other experts? That's like scoffing at an adult illiterate who's struggling with Hop on Pop because someone gave you PhD funding to write a dissertation on Anna Karenina that no one will ever look at again. What happened to giving back to the less fortunate? Damn.
this has resonated with me in a way I didn't expect.
posted by ZaphodB at 7:33 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]
What good is becoming an expert when you'll only converse with other experts? That's like scoffing at an adult illiterate who's struggling with Hop on Pop because someone gave you PhD funding to write a dissertation on Anna Karenina that no one will ever look at again. What happened to giving back to the less fortunate? Damn.
this has resonated with me in a way I didn't expect.
posted by ZaphodB at 7:33 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]
So, what you are saying is that there are 13 notes in an octave?
Sure, if you include sharps or flats!
But really, those are half tones, Which means there are only 12 half intervals in an octave, so clearly the true answer is that there are half of twelve or 6 notes in an octave.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:18 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
Sure, if you include sharps or flats!
But really, those are half tones, Which means there are only 12 half intervals in an octave, so clearly the true answer is that there are half of twelve or 6 notes in an octave.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:18 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
I have a beer maybe every ten weeks. ... it is not the same as having a tenth of a beer a week.
Not the same experiences, for sure. Just the same beer consumption rate. And in the idiom that's common amongst people I interact with face to face, "a tenth of a beer a week" is clearly a rate, in a way that "a tenth of a beer every week" or "a beer maybe every ten weeks" are not, or at least not as clearly.
We could keep going back and forth on this but really it's not even a matter of fact, merely a minor dialect issue. And, as I said already, moot. What's really important here is the beer. What beer is worth waiting ten weeks for?
posted by flabdablet at 8:22 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
Not the same experiences, for sure. Just the same beer consumption rate. And in the idiom that's common amongst people I interact with face to face, "a tenth of a beer a week" is clearly a rate, in a way that "a tenth of a beer every week" or "a beer maybe every ten weeks" are not, or at least not as clearly.
We could keep going back and forth on this but really it's not even a matter of fact, merely a minor dialect issue. And, as I said already, moot. What's really important here is the beer. What beer is worth waiting ten weeks for?
posted by flabdablet at 8:22 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
I like a nice Belgian lambic
posted by bq at 8:30 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
posted by bq at 8:30 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
a friend pointed (no pun intended) me to this recent example
Which in turn reminds me of this exchange (starting at 1 minute in).
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:33 AM on March 28
Which in turn reminds me of this exchange (starting at 1 minute in).
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:33 AM on March 28
As for the ongoing octave discussion: you're all wrong. There are two notes in an octave. If you play 13 notes at once, you're playing not an octave but a big chromatic mash.
posted by flabdablet at 8:41 AM on March 28 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 8:41 AM on March 28 [4 favorites]
Sure, if you include sharps or flats!
That's a good point. I forgot that you have to count the flats separately. That adds 8? more, so that's 21. The best part about this method is that we can start our count before the first note, which strikes me as very efficient.
posted by surlyben at 8:44 AM on March 28
That's a good point. I forgot that you have to count the flats separately. That adds 8? more, so that's 21. The best part about this method is that we can start our count before the first note, which strikes me as very efficient.
posted by surlyben at 8:44 AM on March 28
Don't forget B♯, C♭, E♯, and F♭
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:08 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
What good is becoming an expert when you'll only converse with other experts? That's like scoffing at an adult illiterate who's struggling with Hop on Pop because someone gave you PhD funding to write a dissertation on Anna Karenina that no one will ever look at again. What happened to giving back to the less fortunate? Damn.
No you can't play with it. You won't enjoy it on as many levels as I do.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:12 AM on March 28
No you can't play with it. You won't enjoy it on as many levels as I do.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:12 AM on March 28
Just yesterday I was told about a minor ordeal in the Mario 64 speedrunning community. In one category, runners aren't measured by speed to complete the game but by number of A button presses.
AlSweigart I guarantee you aren't ready for how deep that rabbit hole goes:
Hyper Speed Walking to Parallel Universes via Scuttlebug Raising
"I do need to build up speed for twelve hours. But before that, I need to talk about parallel universes..."
We discussed it here previously.
posted by straight at 11:15 AM on March 28 [3 favorites]
AlSweigart I guarantee you aren't ready for how deep that rabbit hole goes:
Hyper Speed Walking to Parallel Universes via Scuttlebug Raising
"I do need to build up speed for twelve hours. But before that, I need to talk about parallel universes..."
We discussed it here previously.
posted by straight at 11:15 AM on March 28 [3 favorites]
Can we get Ken M to weigh in on this?
posted by dephlogisticated at 1:21 PM on March 28
posted by dephlogisticated at 1:21 PM on March 28
Can we please not call a habitable planet with a breathable atmosphere a spaceship?Unless the world is hollow, and you have touched the sky.
posted by eckeric at 2:00 PM on March 28
I mean, we touch the sky literally all the time when we're outside...
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:35 PM on March 28 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:35 PM on March 28 [4 favorites]
I've always thought things like these are the most trivial and the most substantial things at the same time: on the one hand they are easily solved with even a modicum of common sense, but on the other hand they provide insights into the very fundamentals of thinking itself.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 4:15 AM on March 29 [1 favorite]
posted by Pyrogenesis at 4:15 AM on March 29 [1 favorite]
Exactly! Yes! There’s something seductive about trying to understand how this specific mistake is being made. It’s why ‘the mystery of the Trinity’ is attractive - of course 1 =! 3, that’s the point. It’s like trying to visualize the fourth (spatial) dimension.
posted by bq at 8:03 AM on March 29
posted by bq at 8:03 AM on March 29
Perhaps relevant this weekend: for how many days was Jesus dead?
posted by madcaptenor at 1:50 PM on March 29 [3 favorites]
posted by madcaptenor at 1:50 PM on March 29 [3 favorites]
On the first day of the week after Jesus was executed, the apostles were astonished when he suddenly appeared among them: "Lord, you said you wouldn't be back until Monday!"
posted by straight at 3:29 PM on March 29 [5 favorites]
posted by straight at 3:29 PM on March 29 [5 favorites]
April fool's! Not dead after all!
posted by kaibutsu at 8:43 PM on March 29 [4 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 8:43 PM on March 29 [4 favorites]
bq: It’s why ‘the mystery of the Trinity’ is attractive - of course 1 =! 3, that’s the point. It’s like trying to visualize the fourth (spatial) dimension.
A trinity sounds counterintuitive, but it’s not so difficult to think of examples of real world trinities. One obvious example is words. A word when it is thought, a word when it is spoken, and a word when it is written, is in each case the same word, but each is still three distinct things.
posted by Kattullus at 2:15 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
A trinity sounds counterintuitive, but it’s not so difficult to think of examples of real world trinities. One obvious example is words. A word when it is thought, a word when it is spoken, and a word when it is written, is in each case the same word, but each is still three distinct things.
posted by Kattullus at 2:15 AM on March 30 [1 favorite]
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention - one year bb.com had Ricky Lake at their holiday party. It went about as well as you might expect.
posted by grumpybear69 at 4:15 AM on March 30
posted by grumpybear69 at 4:15 AM on March 30
Good god it’s been so long since the nineties I couldn’t remember if that was the talk show host or the guy who sang ‘Living la Vida Loca’.
posted by bq at 7:36 AM on March 30
posted by bq at 7:36 AM on March 30
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I think I've probably been talked out of my errors more than once, but I don't know if I've ever convinced anyone "otherwise" when they were quite wrong.
Sadly, the people I knew who were so contrarily wrong about things that even when graphs and charts and tactile aids are brought out they still cannot find their way to be correct... they were all people who were really really not bright. "Dumber than a bowl of mice", as the narrator in Freakazoid might have put it.
posted by hippybear at 7:15 PM on March 27