On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:13:19 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:38:46 -0400, mm
wrote:

[snip]


That makes sense, because if it lasted for 8 hours of talking, they'd
probably say it lasted up to 24 hours.

Also, "up to" specifies no lower limit, so 10 milliseconds still
counts as "up to" 24 hours.


Somewhat similar is that in the last 30 years almost everyone has
started saying that if something goes from 100 to 400 that it is 4
times greater, when it is only 3 times greater and 4 times as great.


A very common problem, which I hear often. Because of that I get
suspicious whenever I hear sometinng like "__ times __er than __" (as
in 3 times bigger, 4 times longer, etc...).

If they don't know arithmetic, or they don't know English, how good
could they be anyhow?

There's also "this bulb uses 200% less electricity than normal bulbs".
What is that supposed to mean?

I guess you get to sell it back to the grid. Gotta get me some of
those.

[snip]