Comments on: Methane culpa

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:03:02 +0000

I’ve just found an expression that suits this type of slip; and, since I make so many of them, I’ve adopted it.

It’s CPI, or Complete Prostration of Intellect. I have CPI a LOT!

By: Beowulff

Beowulff — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:32:24 +0000

You’ve missed an opportunity there. Use this next time:
“I was only testing to see if you were paying attention.” You can thank me later

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:50:57 +0000

Phil,

I share your pain my friend. I was once talking with a group of friends and was trying to refer to the distance between the earth and the sun, when I slipped rather Freudianly (there were some cute girls in bikinis there) and said “anatomical unit” instead. The worst part of it was that I myself didn’t catch it right away. Not until another friend said he thought I was exaggerating again! We all had a good laugh at that one.

By: Grumpy

Grumpy — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:14:50 +0000

When methane is on your mind, you’re bound to have brain farts.

By: t8m8r

t8m8r — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:05:11 +0000

I think in SF methane is frequently mentioned with Titan. May be the lakes are methane?

By: John H

John H — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:10:12 +0000

I don’t like to hit a guy while he is down , but actually you made the same mistake in the first video when you were discussing life on other planets.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:48:35 +0000

I’ll note that in China, admitting to a mistake is considered socially unacceptable, especially if it’s a senior scientist doing the mistaking.
In Arabia, there is a saying, attributed to the Quran, that ” a mistake admitted to is twice a mistake,,,”

Makes it really difficult to be a social rebel in those cultures, because that implies the progenitors are wrong,,,

I expect our history of rebellion against the status quo impels us to be constantly re-examining our assumptions and that makes it easier to admit to mistakes and subsequently learn from them. I always liked Edisons response when someone asked him about his 2000 wrong approaches to making a light bulb that he had learned 2000 different ways it wouldn’t work and one that did.

Gary 7