Is there any way to get one guy's RSS feed to blink orange for me? Every time HedgeFundGuy posts, I love what I read. This is exemplary.

I was watching some show where the questioner prefaced his statement with the phrase "with all due respect," and then slammed the guy. I have never heard this phrase preface a statement that evinced any respect. I don�t see why people say it, because it�s such a clich� it doesn�t palliate anymore. There are words, called autoantonyms, that mean both themselves and their opposite, such as moot, which can mean debatable or irrelevant (others include: literally, weather, fine, fast). But then there are phrases that only mean their opposite.

He then offers a list of these. My favorite: "The fact is or History proves � I will assert without any empirical support." Reminds me of the list of common phrases in research literature and what they really mean.

1. �It has long been known that ...� (I haven�t bothered to look up the references, but ...)
2. �Of great theoretical and practical importance ...� (interesting to me)
3. �While it has not been possible to provide definitive answers to these questions ...� (the experiment didn�t work out, but I figured I could at least get a publication)
4. �Three of the samples were chosen for detailed study.� (the results of the others didn�t make any sense)
5. �Typical results are shown.� (the best results are shown)
6. It is suggested..., it is believed..., it may be that...� (I think)
7. �It is generally believed that...� (a couple of other guys think so too)
8. �Agreement with the predicted curve is�:
   
   • Excellent......................fair
     
   • Good............................poor
     
   • Satisfactory.................doubtful
     
   • Fair...............................imaginary
9. �It is clear that much additional work will be re- quired before a complete understanding ...� (I don�t understand it)
   
10. �Unfortunately, a qualitative theory to account for the results has not been formulated.� (no one else understands it either)
    
11. �Correct within an order of magnitude.� (wrong)
    
12. �It is clear ...� (it is not clear)
    
13. �It is obvious ...� (I think that is the way it should be, but I can�t figure out why)
    
14. �Thanks are due to Joe Glotz for his help, and John Doe for his insight.� (Glotz did all the work; Doe figured out what it meant)