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 cliché 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)