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Discussion I'm trying to recover from reading one of the dumbest internet debates of all time.

Prophet64

Prophet64

Moblin
Pronouns
They/Them
The old "how many holes does a straw have?" I'm not bothering to make a poll because this type of arguing over semantics, while adhering to only one definition of the word "hole", is the actual definition of fucking pointless. Then one person then followed by several mentions "well topographically speaking..." or "mathmatically..." like the word is used in geometry except as an abstract term. Which it is: an abstract term used usually in a literary context that has very little descriptive meaning without a qualifier such as "through hole" and "blind hole" or even "black hole" and "donut hole". Waste of fucking everyone's time, mathmatically speaking.

Also, when people are sarcastic on the internet, what the fuck are you even doing?
 
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arrested-development-lucille-bluth.gif
 
Prophet64 said:
The old "how many holes does a straw have?" I'm not bothering to make a poll because this type of arguing over semantics, while adhering to only one definition of the word "hole", is the actual definition of fucking pointless. Then one person then followed by several mentions "well topographically speaking..." or "mathmatically..." like the word is used in geometry except as an abstract term. Which it is: an abstract term used usually in a literary context that has very little descriptive meaning without a qualifier such as "through hole" and "blind hole" or even "black hole" and "donut hole". Waste of fucking everyone's time, mathmatically speaking.

Also, when people are sarcastic on the internet, what the fuck are you even doing?
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You need to let that shit go.

Stop trying to correct people. Do it for yourself. Reserve your energy. Maybe apply to something you enjoy. You can't save the day if you're getting tired doing it, so to speak.
 
a straw either has one hole or infinitely many holes along its length

I'd say pick whichever sounds cooler to you
 
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merp said:
You need to let that shit go.

Stop trying to correct people. Do it for yourself. Reserve your energy. Maybe apply to something you enjoy. You can't save the day if you're getting tired doing it, so to speak.
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Not trying to correct anybody. Just this type of argument has almost no value and you just have people arguing over something the really comes down to how one chooses to look at a hole or two. If someone were to correct me with a 'well actually it's just one continuous hole," in real life I'd just roll my eyes and say, "whatever." And then note in my head that this person suuuuuucks. Because they just topographically do as it turned out.

Basically the answers 1, 2, and infinite can work. So mostly what this debate proves from only the discourse is that people probably still mostly struggle to see from other's perspectives, and would rather just be seen as cleverer or correct when the whole thing is pointless and the allowed answer options do not cover such a take that sidesteps this fallacious arguement.
 
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That's actually funny to consider it having two holes now that I think about it lmao

The "how much days a week if you count every other day" debate is still the best one of the internet though.


 
lego-medium-stone-gray-technic-brick-1-x-2-with-hole-3700-32-64503-64.jpg


ignoring the studs on top and everything on the bottom, how many holes does this LEGO brick have?
 
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The term to use is either "through-hole" or "bore", both of which are types of holes. Hole is too vague of a word to use to describe it.
 
This whole premise is flawed because you're using vague terminology. A hole can be a bore or an entry port. A straw has two entry ports but one bore.

That's why you can't get one answer, the term "hole" is much too broad and can mean entirely different things.

Source: I work with tubes and semantics for a living.
 
I'm over here laughing my absolute ass off at all the people in this thread who actually believe straws exist 🤣
 
I think a straw has 1 hole, for the sake of the argument, but I’d rather just describe it as a thin hollow cylinder normally used to drink a beverage.
 
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Skittzo said:
This whole premise is flawed because you're using vague terminology. A hole can be a bore or an entry port. A straw has two entry ports but one bore.

That's why you can't get one answer, the term "hole" is much too broad and can mean entirely different things.

Source: I work with tubes and semantics for a living.
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So basically the answer is either 1 or 2 depending on your perspective
 
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If a straw had infinite holes in it, in theory you'd be able to store infinite drink inside of it (you'd never run out of hole to store drink). And that's just not possible.
 
Prophet64 said:
Not trying to correct anybody. Just this type of argument has almost no value and you just have people arguing over something the really comes down to how one chooses to look at a hole or two. If someone were to correct me with a 'well actually it's just one continuous hole," in real life I'd just roll my eyes and say, "whatever." And then note in my head that this person suuuuuucks. Because they just topographically do as it turned out.

Basically the answers 1, 2, and infinite can work. So mostly what this debate proves from only the discourse is that people probably still mostly struggle to see from other's perspectives, and would rather just be seen as cleverer or correct when the whole thing is pointless and the allowed answer options do not cover such a take that sidesteps this fallacious arguement.
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Arguing a silly argument is the point/value. No one cares about the correct answer, they want to waste a little time on something moderately contentious but of no real consequence. Escalating the argument just feeds into the whole production of it all. It's like, is a hot dog a sandwich? It is if your definition of sandwich encompasses hot dogs, and it's not if it doesn't. At the end of the day, a hot dog is a hot dog and nothing has changed, but a few people have gotten some sort of satisfaction out of the discussion.
 
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It‘s like with the pronunciation of Mario (which is technically wrong in any english accent because of the missing letter sound in english) or that blue or white dress. Perception is all that matters and if it is true for a large enough amount of people then it is also right, even when it is wrong by semantics, history or something.
It‘s fun arguing about pointless stuff like that though but yeah it often gets strangely serious. If that wasn‘t the case we could even argue which console is the best but sarcasm often dosen‘t work in the internet.
 
Prophet64 said:
The old "how many holes does a straw have?" I'm not bothering to make a poll because this type of arguing over semantics, while adhering to only one definition of the word "hole", is the actual definition of fucking pointless. Then one person then followed by several mentions "well topographically speaking..." or "mathmatically..." like the word is used in geometry except as an abstract term. Which it is: an abstract term used usually in a literary context that has very little descriptive meaning without a qualifier such as "through hole" and "blind hole" or even "black hole" and "donut hole". Waste of fucking everyone's time, mathmatically speaking.

Also, when people are sarcastic on the internet, what the fuck are you even doing?
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I'd just like to point out that technically a black hole is not a hole.
 
Skittzo said:
Not all holes have a depth of zero though. A hole in the ground does not.

Inlets and ports have a volume of zero though.
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Actually it's possible to have infinitely many holes, none of them with a volume of zero, yet their total volume could still be arbitrarily small.

For example, say you have a single drop of your favorite drink. I present to you the following infinite series of straws: the first with a volume of slightly less than half a drop, the second with a volume of a quarter of a drop, the third with the volume of one eighth of a drop, the next 1/16th of a drop, and so on.

No matter how many straws from this group you'd combine, even infinitely many of them, you would never be able to fit the whole drop.

And this is just a simple example, before things start to get messy.
 
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If this debate is full of holes, does that not mean it can encompass within it every other debate known to man since the dawn of time?

It seems to me this is the ultimate debate! The only one worth having, the one to end all other debates!
 
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efyu_lemonardo said:
I'd just like to point out that technically a black hole is not a hole.
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That was part of the point I was making. See also: "donut hole". Without the the modifiers or being more contextually specific the word "hole" has very little meaning (to the examples where it means something the complete opposite) and will come down to someone's preferred definition which may differ from someone else's default definition and you get these obnoxious debates over semantics. Nobody's completely wrong or right because they aren't possible in these cases. But the best thing is to just avoid engaging in semantical arguements once you recognize it for what it is: An enormous waste of time.
 
efyu_lemonardo said:
Unless you're watching from afar while falling into a black hole, in which case time in your frame of reference might condense just enough to get precisely that long an episode.
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You hear that, @kitosan? Nintendo Minute is sometimes a minute if given a very specific intersection of circumstances.
 
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