NYC Subway - Half an inch makes all the difference | Hacker News Reader

NYC Subway - Half an inch makes all the difference

vimeo.com

11 pointsdailo103 comments

Firstly, you can't have something that's "very unique" - either it's unique, or it isn't.[1]

Secondly, it's not made "unique from any other subway station" - it's made different from any other subway station.

Thirdly, I wonder if he really has checked them all.

Finally, it's not the case that "EVERYONE trips on it." I counted at least 14 who didn't, and that's in a film specifically intended to show that "everyone" does.

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[1] Yes, I know that some claim you can't be "more wrong" because "wrong" can't be compared, and that others claim you can compare "wrong" - "Of course it is; it's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable, it's very wrong to say it's a suspension bridge."[2] Still, I claim that something can't be "very unique".

[2] Big Bang theory, Series 2, episode 20.[3]

[3] Also from BBT (Pilot, 2007 (and relevant)):

    Sheldon: You want to hear an interesting thing about stairs?
    Leonard: Not really.
    Sheldon: If the height of a single step is off by as little
             as two millimetres, most people will trip.
    Leonard: I don’t care. Two millimetres? That doesn’t seem right.
    Sheldon: No, it’s true, I did a series of experiments when I was
             twelve, my father broke his clavicle.
    Leonard: Is that why they sent you to boarding school?
    Sheldon: No, that was the result of my work with lasers.

My counter to the "unique" thing is that by the binary definition surely everything is unique. Two twins, still unique, two atoms, two electrons, two imaginary sheep, two infinities, two number 9s. Very similar is some cases, often commonplace, but still unique. What is there in the Universe that isn't unique? Which means that if you're pointing out that something is unique, you really mean that it is unique in some particular categorisation. And if you're unique in more categories than something else? Surely then you're more unique? Is someone who gets three questions wrong "more wrong" than someone who gets two wrong?

Viral Video Forces MTA To Repair Tripped-Up Subway Stairs

http://gothamist.com/2012/06/28/viral_video_forces_mta_to_re...

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