Yeah, for everyone but physicists it's really "big enough" data: it's a big enough data set that you've started recording things you didn't even try to record.
An excellent example was on HN the other day, using the NYC taxi data to determine which drivers are observant Muslims. It's not something anyone set out to record, but the data set has gotten so large that if you turn it sideways and shake, random facts like that fall out.
Do you think that when people make 1000+ table relational databases it's because a) it's fun b) they're stupid or c) because it's modelling something that is inherently complex?
