May 28, 2007
Half Full or Half Empty?
Every once in a while you get the old saw about whether a glass of water is half full or half empty, with the usual optimists see it half full, pessimists see it half empty. They are both wrong part of the time -- whether a glass is half empty or half full depends on the history of that glass of water.
Take the two glasses of water, above right. Glass A, on the left, is half full, glass B, on the right, is half empty. Glass A was filled to the half way point, glass B was emptied to the half way point. A clue is the few drops of water still clinging to the upper half of glass B.
And it matters. When you fly a flag at half mast you are supposed to raise the flag all the way up and then bring it half way down. A flag at half mast is supposed to be half way down, not half way up.
Posted by Paladin at May 28, 2007 11:32 AM