Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hou2d.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!hou2d!wbp From: wbp@hou2d.UUCP (W.PINEAULT) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.nlang,net.ai Subject: On having virtually no crime rate. Message-ID: <472@hou2d.UUCP> Date: Mon, 13-Aug-84 17:48:35 EDT Article-I.D.: hou2d.472 Posted: Mon Aug 13 17:48:35 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 14-Aug-84 02:14:57 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 23 "Saudi Arabia has virtually no crime rate," is what the commercial told me about 30 times before I realized what they are really saying. I understand what having virtually no crime is, and also a very low crime rate is within my grasp. But virtually no crime rate is a very odd construction. If a place has no crime rate then this means that the statistics are not gathered and that's O.K too. If the crime rate is virtually non-existent then it indeed exists, but is in a state of "almost non-being" which may mean that for all practical purposes it does not exist, but is known to a select few who will tell no-one. (Or may be a reflection of their different system of justice!) Are virtual rates calculated on virtual machines, and does one need either transcendental or imaginary numbers to express them? Seriously, what would a program do with such a sentence? And even more interesting, would a sophisticated program have any problem with it, and could it not even see a problem with it as I am sure millons of people did not see one! Submitted for your approval, Wayne Pineault (hou2d!wbp)