Two scientists in conversation

[sawyl]

Inspired, perhaps, by a recent extract from Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World, today's coffee time discussion somehow fell foul of a scientific obsession with accuracy:

Me:	When are you off on holiday?
Good Doctor:	On Saturday
Me:	You must be counting down the days.
GD:	I can do that. It's easy. It's only three days. I can count that high!
Me:	I suppose whether it really is three days or not depends on whether you count today and whether you count Saturday...
GD:	OK, then I am going away in 2–4 days.
Me:	That's quite a large margin of error...

We seem to have somehow started channelling the spirit of Sagan's vision of a world where everything, from political speeches to sermons to commercials, comes with its own set of accompanying error bars...