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Post by Retrograde on Dec 24, 2005 22:45:55 GMT -4
And how do the numbers of people who die in auto accidents, air accidents, shark attacks, terrorist attacks or under coconut palms compare with the numbers of people who die in a bed? Brr. If you think about it, you might never lie down again. Bloody hell, now I have to learn to sleep standing up
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 23, 2005 5:09:06 GMT -4
to produce an effect out of all proportion to the number of casualties It will have to do very well indeed along that dimension to top the events of the 11th of September 2001. Some statistics are found here.
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 5, 2005 22:57:54 GMT -4
I'd point out that this speration of religin and state is only true for the US. Well, I agree it is not universal, but it is not unique to the US either; arguably, places like France and Turkey are more militant about church(or mosque)/state separation than the US...
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 1, 2005 15:49:51 GMT -4
Actually, I'd have to disagree with you about the cars: 10,000 mile service intervals were unheard of in the sixties I'm with you on that one. I never thought of it this way before, but given the type of cars being produced in America in the 1970s, maybe it's not surprising some people don't believe that the Americans could have sent someone to the moon ;D
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 2, 2005 1:30:56 GMT -4
Finally, an Australian has just been executed in Singapore by hanging. He was convicted about three years ago for trafficking 400 grams of heroin. He immediately admitted his guilt, immediately showed remorse, assisted police with their enquiries, and it's been confirmed he couriered the heroin to pay off a debt incurred by his twin brother. Haven't followed the case, and not the familiar with the Singapore legal system, but the court may have had no choice; at least the immigration cards state that the death penalty is mandatory in nice big red letters. But one rather suspects that the next person accused in Singapore will not be so quick to confess... Some opinion pieces on this issue: www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=218www.burmawatch.com/friskodude.blogspot.com/2005/11/singapore-and-burmese-drug-cartel_24.htmlNot really my thing, but I do get the sense that there is an unwillingness to criticize other governments, which seems a common phenomenon in countries where memories of colonialism are still fresh...
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 28, 2005 23:57:45 GMT -4
1. There's no recourse if the executed person is later found to have been innocent. I understand that a disturbingly high number of innocent people have been executed in the USA. The State of Illinois suspended all executions after a number of near-gaffes, including one in which a group of journalism students made a pretty convincing case that one person on the state death row was innocent. I'm not aware that there have been clearly demonstrated executions of innocents, but, given the number of executions and the tendency not to continue investigation after the accused has been executed, this is certainly not outside the realm of possibility...
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 5, 2005 22:54:00 GMT -4
There's the whole US Special forces "Snake Eater" mindset as well, from what I understand it came into being during the Vietnam war, where to prover their manliness, (or stupidity) the SF soldier had to eat a snake - raw , including the Venom sac, usually left until last ! Do they kill the snake first? Life expectancy isn't too high in that part of the USA, IIRC.... That's quite possibly true, although probably due to other reasons; death from snake bite is extremely rare in the US...
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 4, 2005 21:06:54 GMT -4
A fellow named Wesley, once built up a resistance to an Australian poison, Iocane. This served him well and the end he got the girl. Yep, and look where it got him, he got to play Robin Hood for Mel Brooks...
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 21, 2005 21:51:45 GMT -4
No trouble, looks like some other people know quite a bit about such things... You may or may not be familiar with the incident of 29 September 1960, in which Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table during a speech at the United Nations. Where I live, a television network was running adverts of Khrushchev in a shoe store buying his shoes, around the time when I first started to visit web fora. So the idea just came to me...
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 21, 2005 16:16:10 GMT -4
I have just seen on a TV station someone eating a live scorpion, then pouring the deadly snake poison directly from the snake to a glass, mixing it with water and drinking it. Nothing happened to him. How can this happen? I don't know, it should have some explanation. It happened infront of the camera so no hoaxes are involved, well, most probably. Don't know about scorpions, but my understanding is that snake venom would not be harmful if it is ingested, because the proteins which do the damage when injected into the bloodstream will be destroyed in the stomach.
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 4, 2005 13:39:28 GMT -4
It is a small point and certainly leaving the surface of the Earth is a controlled and sustained fashion has always been referred to as 'flight'. Words have the meaning people give to them...
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 24, 2005 10:19:44 GMT -4
The question isn't really how man 747s crashed; it's how many made it successfully. Well, I think what you really want to know if you are planning to fly on one is the ratio between the two numbers. That gives a point estimate; if, in addition, the number of flights is large, than the variance of the estimated success ratio is small. So both numbers are of some use
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 22, 2005 1:29:22 GMT -4
For the proposed actual Russian trip, an estimated $100 million will let you orbit the Moon. Hmm. So how many frequent flier miles would that be?
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Post by Retrograde on Nov 21, 2005 23:35:56 GMT -4
heck yeah. If I was a multi-billionare I'd already have my ticket booked with the Russian's for their 2008 trips. Unfortunately I'm a little broke at the moment. I must not have been paying attention. How much are they charging for this?
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Post by Retrograde on Dec 4, 2005 13:30:46 GMT -4
We not only have two many Jasons, we have two many MMs. I thought this was Moon Man for a short while...
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