The Glass Is Half Full: A Response

August 15th, 2007 · 11 Comments

The default position of a glass is empty. Most of the glasses in your kitchen are empty most of the time. While their purpose and function is to hold liquid, their natural state is emptiness. When you fill a glass with water or beer, it deviates from its natural state, like a object whose inertia has been halted. The change, therefore, is from emptiness to fullness. The amount of fullness is a matter of degree (half full, 2/3 full, 1/4 full (careful the quarterle makes you orderle (from the J.Crew catalog))), but that the glass has become at least partially "full" — as opposed to partially "empty" — is without question. This post is a response to Patttttt's post of 8/7 -Shark

Tags: Response · Shark

11 responses so far ↓

Hip E. // Aug 15, 2007 at 9:58 pm

this is sort of like the false opposition of “dark” and “light” presented in such incredibly dumb ERRRRRRR old books as The Bible. Darkness and Light are not opposites. They are not equals battling for some middle ground. In point of fact, darkness is just the absence of light. It is not a thing in itself. I’m fine with the use of darkness in literature as a stand-in for “evil,” and all the smearing and blurring that goes on with artistic language is great. However, when you’re talking about the real state of reality, darkness is not a positive thing. It’s just what happens when there isn’t a lot of something else – namely, light. Light is electromagnetic radiation. It’s energy. Stillness is the lack of motion. Light is not the absence of darkness. Magic: The Gathering is not the absence of attractive women. That also happens in our comments section.
M. Bock // Aug 15, 2007 at 11:27 pm

Cheap shots over the internet! Magic: The Gathering attacks? BLASPHEMY.
patttt // Aug 16, 2007 at 3:25 pm

Yeah, but is your cousin a world famous soccer player? Didn’t think so.

Game. Set. Match.
Johnny D // Aug 16, 2007 at 4:06 pm

So then, evil is the absence of good? That doesn’t make sense. Is evil then analogous to the antiproton? What would a room full of antiprotons look like? Would it be the inverse wavelength of what we see? If an antiproton were to bounce off of a surface, would it bounce in the opposite direction of a proton, ie rather than reflect, it bounces in the exact same direction it came from? How is that evil? Maybe I should just read the wikipedia entry on it.
Thrill // Aug 16, 2007 at 9:04 pm

You’re thinking of photons, JD; we don’t see protons.
patttt // Aug 17, 2007 at 10:17 am

I see protons.
Big Cat // Aug 17, 2007 at 12:32 pm

OK, I need to step away from the computer a bit. I stand by my original post and will defend it at another time. At the moment, I’m a bit traumatized by the Patttttt imposter. This troubles the Big Cat. It troubles him greatly.
Shark // Aug 17, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Who is Pat with four t’s??
Big Cat // Aug 17, 2007 at 1:25 pm

Yeah, that’s the worst part about it. Four T’s? Blasphemous.

I get the take that the glass starts empty, and that is the glasses natural state. But in the context of glass containing liquid reaching the approximate midpoint of a glass, we must ask ourselves how the liquid got into the glass in the first place. The most obvious assumption is that somebody filled a glass with liquid towards the top 25% of said glass and that the liquid was recently discharged to reach the midpoint of aforementioned glass. The liquid has been displaced. The glass is becoming more empty. Ergo, the glass is half empty.
Patttttt // Aug 17, 2007 at 3:07 pm

I will have as many “Ts” as I want in my name, “Minnow”.

Who is this feckless interloper stealing my identity?
Shark // Aug 19, 2007 at 10:40 am

Sorry about the delay on moderating comments. I only have five hands.

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