Bike buying dilemma

I know. I think I'm boring myself. If I go on much longer I'm going to
kf me.

 

Simian wrote in uk.rec.motorcycles:

Probably, as do most people.

 

this jargon: you have to write it down to avoid the loss of precision, then?

 

when you became a dad, they must have drilled a small hole in the bottom
of your skull, and your brain has been slowly leaking out ever since.

 

Thanks

If one particular group decides that "paedophile" and "paediatrician" are
synonymous, does that make them correct? If they subsequently chuck a brick
through the window of a paediatrician, what would you say to their
justification of their action?

 

"I'm not a pedophile, you stupid cunts, I'm a pederast!"

 

my substantive point is: there is nothing about spoken language that is
inherently imprecise by virtue of its being spoken, or that can be made
more precise by writing the same words down, as you claim. you have failed
to back up any such assertion, which seems to be based (inasmuch as one
can use the word) in something along the same theory that says that words
that are written down are inherently more true than words that are spoken,
or more "real", or more authoritative. which theory is only likely to
find favour with illiterates, who might hold that there was some magical
property of writing that imbues words with special magic. knowing you to
be an intelligent man, and hardly illiterate, i'm somewhat surprised to
hear you expounding such a theory, and can only assume that you have
recently and temporarily taken leave of your senses.

 

i have no problem with the claim that it's all imprecise[1], only with the
claim that writing it down improves its precision.

[1] although without some unit of measurement and something to compare it
with, this claim is effectively meaningless

 

It can, to an extent, I suppose. If only in that it gives the
communicator more time to compose, and is therefore less ad hoc.

Precisely.

 

Yes. He seems to be .. troubled, shall we say..

D.