[tdwg-content] Treatise on Occurrence, tokens, and basisOfRecord [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Richard Pyle]

> Perhaps the word is 'product'? I am thinking along the lines 
> that the cartesian product of the set of all Individuals and 
> the set of all Events is the set of all possible Occurrences. 
> Unfortunately, 'intersection' is quite a good word if we are 
> thinking in natural language, and 'product' is not - not 
> unless you are already thinking in terms of a mathematical vocabulary.

Hmmm, thinking about the mathematical definition of "product", it would seem
to me that the "product" would be some sort of representation of all
*possible* combinations of unique events and unique individuals; rather than
just the tiny, tiny, tiny subset of those that ever existed, and the even
tinier, tinier, tinier susbset that have actually been documented.

In database-speak, an Occurrence is simply a many-to-many join between
Events and Individuals, with a few additional properties.

...which is what I *used* to use the word "intersection" for.

It reminds me of the time when, as a young undergrad, I was informed that I
could no longer use the word "significant" in the sense of "important"....

Aloha,
Rich