Confession of wrongness was (Re: Radioactive decay and

Jeff Davis (jdavis@socketscience.com)
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 22:58:49 -0700

Spike Jones wrote:

>Actually I really did mean *all* the carbon14 is gone out of the coal. Every
>last atom of it.

<snip>
>...4E35 is about 2^119,
>so after 119 halflives we would expect to have exactly one
>atom of carbon 14 left. Carbon has a halflife of about 5700
>years if memory serves correctly, and so after less than
>700,000 years, we should be down to one atom of
>C14,

And shortly thereafter there will be none.

Thus, with impeccable logic, Zen Master Spike "plip, plip, plip" Jones proves upstart and overly confident Jeff Davis,...WROING!!!! INCORRENCT!!!! IN ERRROR!!!

Yes, I admit it. I was wrong. I hearby confess to my wrongness. You were right. And I was wrong. In wrongness, I was the responsible party. In excellence, upstanding correctness, and clear, pure, unalloyed accuracy and rightness, you the man. Whereas I, in this instance, must bear up under the burden of being

Jeff "inexact, inaccurate, not strict, unrigorous, not literal, free, loose, broad, generalized, general, not factual, incorrect, misstated,

misreported, garbled, imprecise, erratic, wild, hit-or-miss, insensitive,
clumsy, out, wildly out, maladjusted, badly adjusted, untuned, out-of-tune,
out-of-gear, out of sync, unsynchronized, slow, losing, fast, gaining,
uncorrected, unrevised, faulty, full of faults, full of holes, flawed,
botched, mangled, bungled, misprinted, misread, mistranslated, misinterpreted, mistaken, bad idea, inappropriate move, miscalculation, misjudgment, blunder, botch-up, bungling, wrong impression, mistaken identity, wrong person, wrong address, glaring error, boner, howler, gaffe, bull, absurdity, loose thread, oversight, inattention, mishit, dud, failure, bungle, foul-up, louse-up, screw-up, ball-up, cock-up, fuck-up, boo-boo, slip-up, goof, blooper, fluff, muff, leak, slip, slip of the pen, slip of the tongue, spoonerism, solecism, clerical error, typist's error, typographical error, printer's error, misprint, typo, literal, erratum, corrigendum, human error, computer error, inadvertency, trip, stumble, bad tactics, wrong step, faux pas, bad taste, blot, flaw, blemish" Davis.

Oh, the ignominy!

                                   Best,   Jeff Davis

                                                    "He was wrong!"
                                                                   Ray Charles