luskie (asker) May 18, 2010:

isn't he? I am the ghost of my mother. eppure non ci sono riuscita, a leggere l'ulisse. firmato, molly

James (Jim) Davis May 18, 2010:

Joyce Yes it is Joyce. In Ulysses Daedalus "proves by algebra that Hamlet's grandson is Shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own father", a quote that always comes to mind when I mix maths with literature.

luskie (asker) May 18, 2010:

they do shrink, they shrink a lot! non ho mai indagato sul fenomeno, ma mi succede così spesso che da un bel pezzo ho preso l'abitudine di cliccare su pagina 2 per sicurezza (adesso che so che è lei, quella sbagliata, non lo farò più :)

luskie (asker) May 18, 2010:

uh, and of course I'm afraid of virginia woolf

luskie (asker) May 18, 2010:

:-) this joycean stream of consciousness (?) of yours I should have read at night, to aptly answer...
people are afraid of dying, punto. and this you won't easily find with a "too" before it.
in ogni caso, tu riusciresti a dimostrare qualunque cosa, anche senza la googlematica ;)

James (Jim) Davis May 17, 2010:

Google Hits continued of being too good
http://www.google.com/search?q="of being too good"&btnG=Sear...
Five
Who is afraid of being
http://www.google.com/search?q="Who is afraid of being"&hl=e...
is afraid of being too
http://www.google.com/search?q="Who is afraid of being"&hl=e...
afraid of being too good
http://www.google.com/search?q="afraid of being too good"&hl...
In answer to the question, "Who is afraid of being too good?". Certainly not me, what un unusual question to answer. Oddly people are afraid of being too happy
http://www.google.com/search?q="afraid of being too happy"&h...
And with just a little more of this literary algebra I will demonstrate that I, like Stephen Daedalus, am also the ghost of my own father.

James (Jim) Davis May 17, 2010:

Hai ragione They shrink. Comunque il principio c'è lo stesso. Non è la prima volta che Google mi fa questo scherzo. I do believe the second page is right, but... why shouldn't it be wrong and the first page right
Matematicamente e sistematicamente:
Who is afraid
http://www.google.com/search?q="who is afraid"&btnG=Search&h...
is afraid of
http://www.google.com/search?q="is afraid of"&hl=en&safe=off...
afraid of being
http://www.google.com/search?q="afraid of being"&btnG=Search...
of being too

http://www.google.com/search?q="of being too"&hl=en&safe=off...
being too good (notice that this one is small - to be too good is unusual)
http://www.google.com/search?q="being too good"&hl=en&safe=o...

who is afraid of
http://www.google.com/search?q="who is afraid of"&btnG=Searc...
is afraid of being
http://www.google.com/search?q="is afraid of being"&hl=en&sa...
afraid of being too
http://www.google.com/search?q="afraid of being too"&hl=en&s...
continued

luskie (asker) May 17, 2010:

9 hits per "afraid of being too good" (they 'shrink' if you click on page 2) continuano a sorprendermi (anche se non mi sorprendono 0 hits per "afraid of being too bad" :). ma se lo dici tu. grazie ancora

James (Jim) Davis May 17, 2010:

Mathematics The probability of a phrase occurring, diminishes exponentially each time you add a word. What you need to be asking is if the components of 2-3-4 words are probable.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q="afraid of bei...

luskie (asker) May 17, 2010:

btw, anche se adesso il kudoz è chiuso, would you be so kind to enlighten me as for the reason why "who is afraid of being too" only gets 5 google hits? era stato per questo che invece di chiedere aiuto solo per "prestigioso" l'avevo chiesto per tutta la frase