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Fair enough, but it's worth noting that line is the difference between empty ocean and twenty million people, threee major airports and the financial capital of
by CPLX 12y ago
Fair enough, but it's worth noting that line is the difference between empty ocean and twenty million people, threee major airports and the financial capital of the world. It's sort of the definition of a distinction denoting an actual difference.
- mikeash 12y agoI think the problem is that people don't really understand nonlinearities in these things. Imagine somebody aims a gun at you and I say, "Watch out, he's going to shoot you!" Then he fires the gun, but it misses you by an inch. You wouldn't say "you idiot, the bullet didn't hit me at all." But the weather equivalent has people thinking forecasters are stupid.
- RunningWild 12y agoExcept that (probably) no one predicts where bullets go for a living whereas, for weather reporters (or, more accurately, meteorologists), it's their job. I theorize if we started smashing them in the balls with a tackhammer every time they're wrong, you'd see both a mass exodus out of that field and a marked increase in accuracy.