Monday, February 23, 2009

Hot Opportunity

Boiling frog

The boiling frog story states that a frog can be boiled alive if the water is heated slowly enough — it is said that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will never jump out.

The story is generally told in a figurative context, with the upshot being that people should make themselves aware of gradual change lest they suffer a catastrophic loss. Often it is used to illustrate a slippery-slope argument.


I forgot what my point was. Sorry.

4 comments:

  1. Stag,

    You can shear a sheep a thousand times, but slaughter it only once.

    I think wall street has slaughtered a generation of sheeple.

    Of course you could argue that wall street had sheared them to death too. But I view the housing bust as a slaughter.

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  2. mab,

    You can shear a sheep a thousand times, but slaughter it only once.

    Good point!

    When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. - Chinese Proverb

    That should leave you just enough money left over to buy a $500,000 home, a new car in the driveway, and participate in the no payments until 2014 sale down at the local furniture store.

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  3. "You can shear a sheep a thousand times": my golly, your sheep must be longer lived on your side of the Atlantic.

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  4. dearieme,

    Actually, our sheep only tend to live 20 seconds on average. The machine that shears them operates at an amazing 50 cycles per second. In our defense, the technology looked REALLY good on paper though. ;)

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