The best line:
“As for Calloway, his injuries were less severe, but his original fear was realized: FedEx elected to terminate his employment.”
Made me literally LOL.
And that proves it – FedEx must be racist. It is a wonder he didn’t sue them over the whole affair. Given the right venue in this crazy country – he might actually win.
The Russians are about to to into this lake. See http://news.yahoo.com/russian-scientists-poised-reach-ice-buried-antarctic-lake-223204623.html
We need a LIKE button on here!
Nice work! Sounds interesting :)
Robert Klark Graham’s Repository for Germinal Choice reminded me of the story ‘My Uncle Oswald’ which was published by Roald Dahl in 1979. Dahl explores the subject in a comedic light and is more focused on the business of setting up and managing such a scheme rather than the exploration of its effects. Not a bad book though… Defiantly an interesting topic and a very enjoyable article.
first, congratulations, Ben! sounds like a good read!
Damn interesting article for a damned long time coming resurrection to a really damn fine site. Thanks!
I remember this actually on tv as I was like 7 at the time and loved those goofy little red whammies and adults having cows over losing the big money on the board. I just recall it vaguely but it was cool seeing this weird dude never miss at going around while the host looked like he was going to blow from the shock of it all.
Wow it lives! I de-listed the bookmark maybe 4-6mo ago after going so long as it just bothered me. Happy to see this place seems to be moving along again finally. I’ve enjoyed the book, and the site even more over the years as I discovered when I first started working where I still am now and it appears I can read it once again.
Oh, after seeing these pic`s : http://www.don-simmonds.co.uk/ladybgood.htm
i see that it would be hard to restore it to where you could fly it. :’(
If the dip-shits left it where it was it could be restored…
Wow, Is the B-24 in the same spot where it crashed? Is it worth trying to restore? is it owned by anyone? or could anyone go get it and restore it?
This reminds me almost spot on of a vampire/demon like creature described in the book “Passing Strange” By J.A. Citro. It’s a book of New England oddeties and happenings of the gothic sort. In one he tells about a creature who’s behavior and appearance are almost identical to Spring Heeled Jack, other than the fact that he had a silver face, or wore a silver mask with pointed ears. I believe it was in nearly the same era as well, but I would have to dig out the book to be sure.
It’s true, size doesn’t matter. Just happy you’re back.
I had never considered the annoyance of listening to your own voice for extended periods.
As a musician, I had to listen to and analyze recordings of my trombone playing, often at half speed (This preserves the intonation by dropping the sound precisely 1 octave). That, at best, was tedious. Thankfully, I never had to edit the recording to produce a final product. They were either practice exercises or analysis of performances I had already completed. I imagine that the barrier you are facing is similar.
I first heard this on a halloween FX track. So hilarious xD
igmothemagus said: “My ears are aching for some of that sweet sweet candy…. Who is going to be reading the story? Is it Alan or a guest? I’ll try to start a rumor here…Didn’t you mention that it was going to be James Earl Jones doing the reading before???
I have two factors from which I can squeeze some sweet excuse-juice:
A) I’m still settling into my new job, so discretionary time isn’t as readily available as it would be otherwise; and
B) I underestimated the psychological friction of listening to one’s own voice repeatedly for hours of editing. I may need to find someone else to read or edit for me.
The podcast remains imminent.
My ears are aching for some of that sweet sweet candy…. Who is going to be reading the story? Is it Alan or a guest? I’ll try to start a rumor here…Didn’t you mention that it was going to be James Earl Jones doing the reading before???
Just kidding, take your time Alan. I am sure you are working to make it perfect.
If there were 1 Billion doors to choose from, and I picked one randomly that I thought may contain the prize, I would have a 1 in 1 Billion chance of picking the right door first time (very little chance of success). If the host then opened 999,999,998 doors that HE knew did not contain the prize (leaving my original picked door and only one other door), that would mean that either my door was right (on first choice) – or the only remaining door he has left unopened is right and the odds would suggest I should swap to his door. Much better odds than the three doors but the principle is the same, unless someone sees a flaw in my reasoning?
btw, there is a connection between the growth of cotton growing and weaving cotton material, and the increase in foot binding. Bound feet are found on mummies as early as the 1000s, but the custom remained limited until the 1700s and the growth of the cotton industry. Before then bindings were made from linen or silk, mostly, and these fabrics were more time consuming to grow and weave. Cotton allowed for greater quantity of material, more cheaply. This was also true in the west as cotton growing increased during the 1700s.
said: ““Billions” of girls were subjected to this? I strongly doubt it, even with the thousand year history of the practice. After all, it was only the affluent who did it, and it was restricted to girls, all women would have to have been bound to reach “billions”. Plural. Can’t be right.”
Actually it was not just the affluent in most of China. About 80% of all females over the age of 10 or so had bound feet by the 1700s. Footbinding was at its height and most widely spread right around the time it began to decline due to foreign influence, mainly. And once Chinese men came back from the West or from a progressive school, they did not want bound-footed women. Countless women who endured the binding had to unbind their feet in their adult years–a very painful process.
Lisa See, an American writer with some Chinese ancestry, has written about life in China. One good book is Snow Flower and the Fan. It describes footbinding as carried out in both poor and upper class families. It was not confined to the affluent. It was prevalant throughout the country and it is estimated that over about a 1000 yr, one billion girls went through foot binding.
I didn’t find this as damn interesting as I found it damn disturbing.
My paycheck was to be on the return trip from this plane. It was delayed a day.
said:Jet engines move metal parts against each other. They are always grinding. Although the word “grinding” as it pertains to engines contains a negative connotation, IMHO it remains sufficiently ambiguos that the normal engine noises could be (although they never are to my knowledge) described as “reassuringly grinding”.
When I drive my car, I listen to the engine. Some grinding noises are normal, but extreme or irregular ones are not. Sometimes you hear the hum of the engine and feel satisfied, and sometimes you hear an odd noise, which does not repeat, and feel reassured by the non-repetition. However, sometimes the odd noise repeats with increasing frequency, iregularity and oddness.
I know I’ve laboured the point too much, but this would be decreasingly reassuring ;-p”
One could certainly argue that the sound of an engine operating as designed is, in fact, reassuring. And since engines are designed with the understanding that they will wear (grinding being one cause of wear), the sound of them operating within their acceptable wear parameters may be considered reassuring. Nonetheless, “grinding,” as you point out, contains a negative connotation when it comes to engines. I think when most people think of “grinding” sounds coming from an engine, their first thought is, “That’s not right.” Rarely will you find people saying the “grinding” sound emanating from their engine was reassuring because it meant it was wearing down at an acceptable rate.
Ultimately, one would presume the goal would be to produce a frictionless (thus, no grinding) engine that would last forever. Until that day, however, I will consider all “grinding” sounds from my engines to be bad, regardless of how normal they may be within the parameters of acceptable wear. Yes, the “grinding” means it’s running, but it also means it is working towards not running.
Hmm, I do think there is a need to single out faith. Faith is particularly blessed with not only allowing, but demanding, non-evidentiary beliefs. At least scientists and historians tend to evolve their knowledge in a direction of greater truth. Faithians do not.”
If your position is that faith has not evolved, then I would say you are incorrect. There is a reason most religions (if not all) have different factions that operate under the same, general umbrella. People of faith have their own idea of the truth, and work towards it in their own ways. You may disagree with their “truth,” but that in no way makes you more correct than they.
If your position is that there are no scientists or historians that have ever argued a particular position, in spite of mounting evidence to indicate their theories are not just inaccurate, but simply wrong, I would also say that you are incorrect. I do note your qualifier of “tend,” but I’m not so convinced the goal for most is “truth,” but more affirmation of previously held beliefs. It may be the inevitable goal, at least as far as science goes, but there are countless cases of “researchers” who have fudged data in order to support a “conclusion” that was held prior to the actual “research” being concluded.
As for historians, as they say, history is written by the victors, so I would not say the same about historians as I would scientists. Analysis of historical events is rather subjective. Take a particular struggle that took place in the past, and you could have one group of individuals referred to as liberators, enslavers, terrorists, revolutionaries, etc. Take a particular event and you could have any number of theories as to what led to it occuring. That is the nature of the study of history. It is unlikely there will ever be complete concurrence among historians on who, what, when, where, and why when it comes to events in the distant past, or even the recent. Nonetheless, “history” will continue to be taught to “the very young, who are not yet able to approach (such subjects) with properly developed critical faculties.”
Similarly, countless scientific disciplines will also be taught to “the very young, who are not yet able to approach (such subjects) with properly developed critical faculties.” I’m not saying that is either right or wrong. I’m just saying that it is so. I know I was taught Pluto was a planet when I was a child, and had not the “properly developed critical faculties” to argue against such a claim. Apparently, though, I was taught incorrectly. I am not aware of Pluto having physically changed to justify it being downgraded, so I can only presume that science was wrong. Or perhaps scientists are able to change the “rules” in order to justify their new-found position on Pluto. If that’s the case, what other “rules” can be changed in order to justify new views?
Now, I’m not familiar with the term “Faithian” (Do I need to capitalize?), but based on your post, it would seem to be intended, at least somewhat, to be derogatory. If that’s the case, and based on your comments, then I guess I understand your prejudice towards faith and people who have it. You are certainly entitled to such a view, but in my opinion, it simply speaks more about you than it does about the subject discussed here.
said: ““…William Rankin heard a decreasingly reassuring series of grinding sounds coming from his aircraft’s engine.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard grinding sounds coming from an engine, aircraft or otherwise, that I would call “reassuring.” I understand the feeling you are trying to convey, but in order for the sounds to become “decreasingly reassuring,” they have to have, at some point, been at least slightly reassuring. It just read a little odd, to me.
Otherwise, great piece. I guess trying to ride out the descent until he reached a more suitable altitude for ejection would have put him in even greater peril than the HALO ejection. A near-supersonic nose dive ejection sounds pretty bad.”
Jet engines move metal parts against each other. They are always grinding. Although the word “grinding” as it pertains to engines contains a negative connotation, IMHO it remains sufficiently ambiguos that the normal engine noises could be (although they never are to my knowledge) described as “reassuringly grinding”.
When I drive my car, I listen to the engine. Some grinding noises are normal, but extreme or irregular ones are not. Sometimes you hear the hum of the engine and feel satisfied, and sometimes you hear an odd noise, which does not repeat, and feel reassured by the non-repetition. However, sometimes the odd noise repeats with increasing frequency, iregularity and oddness.
I know I’ve laboured the point too much, but this would be decreasingly reassuring ;-p
Not to downplay the horrific nature of clitoridectomy (it is, in my opinion, much worse), but there are lots of people who consider circumcision to result in a painful deformity. Personally, I prefer to go without the turtleneck, even if it wasn’t my choice, and there are many arguments for and against it. It may have had its origins in “antiquated traditions,” but there is an argument it is preferred to go without a permanent hoody for reasons that include health concerns. Of course, there are no such arguments for clitoridectomy, unless you want to try to claim it cuts down on promiscuity, so it could cut down on unintended pregnancies and STDs.
You’re right, male circumcision can be, nay must be, regarded as a deformity, since any circumcision results in the restrictive formation of at least some scar tissue and interferes with the normal lubricating operation of the penile sheath.
No need to single out faith. Knowledge is always evolving, and things that were taught in the past to “the very young, who (were) not yet able to approach (such subjects) with properly developed critical faculties” are not taught today. Scientists, historians, grammarians, etc., change their approach to any number of disciplines over time, so one could argue those theories that have been disproven, interpretations that have fallen out of favor, or applications that have simply changed can also be considered “antiquated traditions.””
Hmm, I do think there is a need to single out faith. Faith is particularly blessed with not only allowing, but demanding, non-evidentiary beliefs. At least scientists and historians tend to evolve their knowledge in a direction of greater truth. Faithians do not.
just as how I imagine for us humans to discover much better ideas from the past. Using the best core bit drilling tools, I’ve seen it like in discovery channel how they drill from ocean top down to the deep rocks beneath it though I hope it’s not like of the movie ” The day after tomorrow” where they core bit http://www.gilatools.com/diamond-core-bits.html drill on the ice cap in the north pole and with a mistakes, it suddenly changes everything on the sphere.
Pretty damn, good i like it!
Good one, Deertick. I like it!
Even if Scientists do find means of bringing back frozen human bodies to life, don’t you think that there will have to be some sort of cap to how many people they bring back ?
I mean if all of a sudden scientists started bringing everybody that died back to life, then the world would soon become a very very crowded place, i’m not trying to be morbid about it, but it makes no logical sense to bring every person that dies back to life.
Also as regards to passing away and then coming back & the psychological implications it may have; i believe that if during an operation for example the blood of the heart is being warmed, but the person is technically dead, then the mind(being as powerful as it) is will recognize this and surely go into some form of shutdown, when the patient is awoken i believe the strange feeling can either be one of interruption of the minds shutdown process or the awakening of a brain that has already shut itself down. Think of it like a computer, the heart is still pumping via machines, the brain knows the heart is not pumping by itself so therefor thinks that it should enter some form of rest, or shutdown, so the mind shuts the rest of the body down, effectively, the person & brain is dead. Then an electric pulse is sent to the nerves in the heart(Restarting the computer) and all of a sudden it starts pumping again, and the brain has to turn itself back on again(Start up process), hence causing the strange feeling. I am no doctor, i am no scientist, i study engineering, but nevertheless this all makes logical sense to me, flame me if you must but i am always open to opinion.
Wow.. in that first pic he bears a striking resemblance to Kyle Sandilands – an Australian TV/radio “personality” [read: wanker]. Lol I think it’s those beady, shifty eyes.. spitting image of each other.
Panorama said: “Such a mothers has no sole.”
Aww such mothers had soles.. which were no doubt sculpted into tiny pointed lotus shape too.
Great article! It thoroughly disproves the theory that pilots can’t fly a plane while hammered.
As for me, I like the postage stamp.
Thanks for another great read! Keep ‘em going!
I think Rocco from Boondock Saints said it best: “Sick Fuc@, Sick Fuc@, Sick Fuc@”
Fascinating story. Thought it was going to turn into a real life account of Castaway at first!
Glad to have a DI article to read, avoided reading the food binding one as I knew there would be stuff in there I just wouldn’t want to know…
@Alan Bellows still again:
The “few extra years” that you, Alan, discussed above, were “slipped in” as follows:
We must take biblical history into account when considering secular calendrical efforts and what time, years and days meant in prophecy. This is because a “prophetic year” of the Bible (referring to the King James type), was 360 days, which year biblical prophets called “a time.” A time and times and a-half, were 3 1/2 years of 360 days each. Total days of such an amount of time would be 360 x 2 + 180 = 1260 days in ancient prophetic biblical reckoning.
When the Gregorian calendar came into being, the prophetic “time,” or 360 day year, was changed to an average of 365.25 days per year. This added an average of 5.25 days to every secular year thereafter. This could easily be interpreted as a fulfillment of the biblical prophecy that, “the beast would seek to change the times…,” as said reference to “times” was a 360 day “prophetic” year that was changed by Pope Gregory. The change in time to a secular year could, would and did booger any prophetic calculations that were later made with reference to “The Holy Bible,” UNLESS the change of total yearly days from 360 to 365.25 were taken into account and calculated in, which has not been done until I began doing it in 1968.
Thus, without entering into any other kind of “time boogering” as the Germans have done, just changing over from the prophetic calendar to that of the secular added 10500 days to the secular calendar every 2,000 years. This amounts to 29.16 “prophetic” years of 360 days each that were added to the secular calendar, or 28.75 secular years every 2000 secular years. I don’t believe I have ever read or known of any biblical scholar taking this particular time discrepancy into account even though it has, since effected, been standing directly “in yo’ face.” But isn’t this precisely what Bible prophets reported the case would be regarding so many items, including the correct interpretations of the very words of the prophecies?
And so it is literally these amounts of time (reckoning here in 2000 secular years): 29.16 years of prophetic and 28.75 years of secular, that render the hour these very days to be “later than you think.” This time alteration takes no speculation, deep investigations, or faith at all. It is a plain historical, mathematical fact, whose meaning was hidden inside the pupil of every eyeball, just waiting for the owner of the thing to open the eyelid covering that pupil and look through it. It is pretty much the exact amount of time discrepancy it required to booger humankind’s ability to interpret exactly when the prophecies related in the Bible would be fulfilled.
It means that right now, today, the year is within a few days or weeks of 1983 according to both prophetic and secular counting from Zero AD because this is how many years were added by Pope Gregory’s new secular calendar that supplanted the prophetic one.
When one calculates the times from many thousands of years ago, when many of the prophets wrote, the time discrepancy gets increasingly longer. In 5000 years, for example, would be 26250 days, which are nearly 72 secular years and nearly 73 prophetic ones. It’s a bunch of years. It could blow a nice prophetic calculation into the incomprehensible.
The time discrepancy above was revealed to me when I Awoke in August 1968 in a cataclysmic moment that virtually wiped out my ordinary existence and replaced it with something almost non-human, which has endured to the present. I am definitely not entirely human any longer. Individual days have meant very little to me since that Awakening (which I capitalize to differentiate from the ordinary variety), as days and times became one enduring moment of Super Consciousness the instant my eyes opened in life for the first time in 28 years.
Yes, the above Awakening for me occurred in the very same 28 prophetic year period that Pope Gregory created by the time change, calculated from the day of my birth on earth, right down to the exact hour and minute. My physical body was born 28 prophetic years after the birth of my parents and my Waking State was born exactly 28 prophetic years after that. When I Awoke so powerfully I realized I had not been born in 1940 at all, but in the year I Awakened in 1968, as my physical body was little more than an uncomprehending shell when it was created, until 28 years had lapsed. Each 28 years of my life has been of earthshaking importance, both for me and the earth. A little more about this below.
When biblical scholars and other researchers calculate prophetic times from the Bible, they count ENTIRELY in terms of a secular 365.25 day year all the way back from the biblical event forward to the proposed secular year it is “calculated” to occur. But it doesn’t occur, right? It is basically because of a nearly thirty year discrepancy just in the past 2000 years that anybody ought to be able to see but “magically” cannot and have not been able all these thousands of years until I Awoke in 1968 and saw the significance of the error. Scholars have not calculated prophetic biblical statements in terms of 360 day years (correcting for the added 5.25 days) even though the biblical prophets plainly stated the prophecies related to a 360 day year.
Only now, in this very blog, I reveal this information for the first time (potentially to the world at large) because I feel the time is becoming ripe. I’ve kept the secret to myself for a little over 42 years, mainly because the world was not ready for it. I’ve checked all along to see, as I am doing now. It still may not be ready and may have to be scrunched into a ball of tinfoil without ever knowing. But it is not my judgment to make. I move pretty much 100% by intuition since Awakening, instead of by concrete personal judgments that usually are plainly incompetent, not just within me but all flesh.
I have done quite a lot of calculations using the system above, which reveals (as briefly mentioned above) that my Spiritual Birth occurred exactly 28 prophetic years since my secular birth on March 15, 1940, which in turn was exactly 28 prophetic years to the center point of the secular births of my parents. Twenty-eight secular years in the other direction after I Awoke in 1968, I typed my first words into a computer, which meant that I was at least potentially connected now to the entire world and it was necessary only to wait a little longer until the world matured into the convenience of it.
Since that fateful moment (Internet functionality), the world is beginning to show signs that it may be ready for the whole truth pretty much any time. I would be happy to reveal all I know about the above time discrepancy reported above (and related items), for any consciousness capable of demonstrating the capacity to grasp realities of a higher order without getting bogged down in ego monsters and screaming and hollering in pain. It will only take a few words for me to find out. If my “contactee(s)” can’t cut the mustard, I will know right away and no time will be wasted battling the ego monsters that assumed control of this whole planet a long time ago.
I’ll monitor this note for a while to see if folks that possess the requisite degree of demonstrable enlightenment would like to continue this conversation. If so, I’ll provide an email address upon request. Let me caution the reader that it takes a “heads above the herd” kind of enlightment. Any less is a waste of time and energy and I won’t let it happen.
@Alan Bellows again:
Sorry, but my comment posted on its own before I had finished. I would like to go ahead and post this one just to let the author of the above article, Alan, know that I had not finished my comment, as the only thing Alan could be wondering about would be, “So how did it happen?” I was busy telling it when my comment posted without my consent. :) The remainder of my first comment will follow shortly.
Thank you, Adam.
@ Alan Bellows: “…but I don’t completely discount the possibility that a few extra years have been slipped into the calendar at some point.”
Indeed, such “extra few years” have actually been slipped into the calendar “at some point.” It happened when the Julian Calendar came about and was compounded when the Gregorian replaced it. One could call these calendars “secular,” as opposed to those that were used in what is referred to as “biblical times.”
i would think modern engineers would have learnt a big lesson from this, but here in the uk we have had similar experiences check out Londons Millenium bridge; http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~den/ICSV9_06.htm
Di article, in the words of MC Hammer:
“Give me a song or rhythm
Making ‘em sweat
That’s what I’m giving’em now they know
You talk about the Hammer, you’re talking about a show
That’s hyped and tight
Singers are sweating so pass them a wipe
Or a tape to learn
What it is going to take in the ’90s
To burn the charts
Legit either work hard or you might as well quit
That’s the word,because you know
U can’t touch this
(uh-uh uh-uh uh-uh-uh)
U can’t touch this
(uh-uh uh-uh uh-uh-uh)
Break it down”
Excellent story. They should send the TSA over to fedex… and leave the rest of us alone.
It’s good to have you back. Been without my DI fix for far too long.
As a side note Flatfoot, even if the locals could identify an Air force flightsuit, Rankin was was a Marine. (It seems only Navy people will ever give us jarheads a ride)
Damn, I spend a bit of time not checking and you’re back. Glad to see new articles once again.
There’s a fairly new (2010?) book about this – Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben McIntyre. Since it uses Ewen Montagu’s personal journals and correspondences as never-before-seen sources, it answers some questions as conclusively as they can ever be answered – I recommend reading it, as it’s also entertaining, engaging, and full of stranger-than-fiction details. When I saw it in my local library, I checked it out just because I had read this article years before – thank you Damn Interesting!
Great Article as usual!
Looking forward to sampling the audio edition of this article when it’s available!
said: “said: “Technically, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. And dziban303 is correct. The actual trial utilized a petit jury, not a grand.Also:
“Sanders emerged from the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit…”
What, “cockpit” was not clear enough? Why not “the section of the aircraft where food and beverages are prepared” instead of “galley”?”
It’s a reference from the movie “Airplane!”
Dr. Rumack: “There’s been a little problem in the cockpit.”
Ted: “The cockpit? What is it?”
Dr. Rumack: “It’s a little room in the front of the plane, where the pilots sit, but that’s not important right now.””
That’ll work.
Also, in the fourth-from-last paragraph: “The judge did not agree, and he told them so.”
From the Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” Well played!
said: “Technically, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. And dziban303 is correct. The actual trial utilized a petit jury, not a grand.Also:
“Sanders emerged from the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit…”
What, “cockpit” was not clear enough? Why not “the section of the aircraft where food and beverages are prepared” instead of “galley”?”
It’s a reference from the movie “Airplane!”
Dr. Rumack: “There’s been a little problem in the cockpit.”
Ted: “The cockpit? What is it?”
Dr. Rumack: “It’s a little room in the front of the plane, where the pilots sit, but that’s not important right now.”
Technically, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. And dziban303 is correct. The actual trial utilized a petit jury, not a grand.
Also:
“Sanders emerged from the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit…”
What, “cockpit” was not clear enough? Why not “the section of the aircraft where food and beverages are prepared” instead of “galley”?
this is the best line in the whole story:
“he replaced the acoustic instrument in his guitar case with several blunt ones.”
I was surprised that this story got so little press when it happened (oh, for the days prior to 9/11). I first heard about it about a month after it happened from some FedEx employees while I was waiting for a flight at the Memphis airport.
One thing they mentioned was that one of the pilots was a last minute substitution, and the one he replaced was much smaller. One can only imagine how differently this might have gone if that had happened.
CO absorbs at 2.143 × 105 m-1 which is similar to the absorption of NO+ ion. Can yougive any reason for this similarity?
An infinite sequence of independent trials is to be performed. Each trial results in a
success with probability p and a failure with probability 1 – p. What is the probability
that
i) At least 1 success occurs in the first n trials;
ii) Exactly k successes occur in the first n trials;
iii) All trials result in successes? (5)
Q4. (a) The probability mass function of a random variable X is given by
p(X = i) = cli i!, i = 0,1, 2,…, where l is some positive value. Find
i) P (X = 0);
ii) P (X > 2).
If n people are present in a room, what is the probability that no two of them celebrate
their birthday on the same day of the year? How large need n be so that this
probability is less than ½?
Great read… No one can fully understand the Human mind!!
Grand juries don’t convict people or participate in trials, they issue indictments.
damn interesting indeed! and it seems that all things considered…. damn lucky for the flight crew. thier lives have been irrevocably changed for the worse but they are still alive and breathing…. and of course damn heroic too! no telling how much damage would have been done with a plane crash or how many lives could have been lost!
Thanks for yet another great article, Alan! I’m so glad you & the gang at DI are back churning out articles. Your hard work is greatly appreciated by all your readers!
Woot my first first! Great read, keep em comin’!
omfg, so many people defending the government, he should’ve selled the land for the price they wanted? where is the right for freedom, democracy is only valid when you have lots of money and powerful friends???
he was insane because he gave up his life, not because he got mad…
50 years from now we will be readiang about the absurdity of botox and silicon
so the lesson we learned: “never try to help the american government”
I scored 153! Whaddo I win? Let’s see, I win that I am unable to say anything without sounding sarcastic, when people cry around me I want to punch them in the face, I think Dexter Morgan would be the best husband ever, I lose friends because I try to help them figure out their problems logically and discount their feelings because they are being irrational, and my boyfriend tells me I am embarrassing because I am not “acting friendly” and his friends always ask him what is wrong with me because I always act like something is wrong. Case in point, nothing is wrong, that’s my face.
Thanks, Howzat for the links.
I thought that that alexithymia is more of a detachment from your emotions by not having the words to describe them (literal translation), as opposed to not having them. I have only just begun my research on this, and especially now, since reading this article and your responses, and the online test, I will be doing much more.
In analyzing myself over the last few years, with the help of my counselor/therapist, I thought dissociation was the answer, though I was sure it could not be the sweeping description of my life, as I am not dissociated from my life, but on top of experiencing as described above, I have dissociative experiences.
I see this ‘condition’ or state possibly as a result of trauma, emotional trauma, and a variety of experiences that cause a protective shutdown. I might argue that those of us with “no feelings” actually are deeply feeling, sensitive people that cannot face it, and sometimes have the ability to have some joy in possibly one area, as Mycroft describes above (I do with my children).
@Nidis I hope that through some counseling and self-examination, you can get to that place you need to be. You already are very self aware, which is more than most people, and that is what it takes. Seems easier to begin the journey of learning about ourselves when we can be detached, but when we can get to that place where we have to go beyond that, there is our choice, do we dive in, or stay on the outside?
jodi.bird
I had quit looking at this website for so long for fear of seeing that damn banana mocking me, but am so pleasantly surprised to find you are back and there is still some damn interesting things to write/read about!! So glad you’re back, my lunch break at work has meaning again!!
i like it ALL. more please!
said: “The same kind of thing happened with Chernobyl. Lake of safety protocol and an “Experienced” operator who took short cuts caused that tragedy.”
Meant to say “Lack”.. sorry it’s late.
The same kind of thing happened with Chernobyl. Lake of safety protocol and an “Experienced” operator who took short cuts caused that tragedy.
wow, a lot of old cultures had these social abnormalities. Very Interesting.
I like short shorts. Its like a quickie.
said: ““…the procedure was seldom carried out by the mother…”I am disturbed that mothers would consent to this, if they did! A girl’s feet were broken when she was between 2 and 5 years old. Children are much more sensitive to pain than adults. Makes me want to cry and I don’t even have children yet.
…
Such a mothers has no sole.
Although I never consciously gave up hope… I must admit I was surprised to see several new articles when I came back here to look for something I might not have read yet. Damn glad to have action here again!
I just registered today to say two things:
1. Love the website. All the articles I’ve read so far are indeed Damn Interesting! Keep up the fine work!
2. I live in the UK, on a housing estate that is near the former site of a RAF base. All the street names have some sort of aeronautical name, for example Barnes Wallis Close, Sunderland Close etc. At the back of the estate, there is a road that leads nowhere (I think there may have been a time when expansion of the estate was on the cards, never happened) and the road is called Brabazon Way. Useless information I know, but I thought it was at least semi-interesting…
I’m surprised at the temperatures. The geothermal gradient in this area would need to be pretty low to only have 180C at 12.75 km. And believe me, it would need to be much hotter than this to have drilling problems due to plasticity of the rock. The Icelanders just drilled into magma (liquid rock) and they had very little trouble until that happened. The temperature was over 450C. They drilled into magma at the Puna geothermal project as well and again they had no drilling problems until just before they hit it. We are working on a geothermal project in a well that has over 325C at the bottom and there was no problem with plasticity of the rock. We run mud motors as was described in this well at temperatures over 250C.
Over 44 TW of heat energy escapes from the earths surface into the atmosphere annually. The planet wide energy consumption is about 11 TW. This energy is not from the sun nor does it come from pressure. It comes from heat given off by radioactive decay of elements in the rocks making up the planet. There are hot spots, of course, where the crust is thin. The mid-ocean ridges and rift zones as well as the Basin and Range have this thin crust. Some extra heat is given off by friction between moving pieces of the crust but this isn’t a big piece of the heat budget of the planet.
Geothermal power in the Hawaiian Islands comes from one project at Puna on the Big Island which supplies about 25 MW. Thats about 20% of the Big Island power consumption but only about 2% of the state consumption.
One assumption in the population calculation seems suspect: the idea that half the population was “middle class”. I generally understood the term to apply to the merchant classes, which were a minority relative to the peasantry. (A quick search for “middle class medieval China” did not get far other than validating the terms “middle class” and “peasantry”.)
And thank you Alan for the new posts. Just found my way back, and whether it is familiar (foot binding) or completely new (ice worms), it is always a good read.
Regarding the skepticism surrounding the “billions” estimate: I used the term “billions” because 1-2 billion seems to be the consensus among historians who have written about this subject. But it’s always good to check the math.
According to these same historians, the practice was adopted by about half of the families in China (about 50% of middle-class families and nearly 100% of affluent families). Based on Jared Lessl’s source, life expectancy in China was about 42 years for a woman in China in 1950, but I’ll use 50 years so I can estimate more quickly.
Using the graph from that same source, I noted the estimated population at fifty year intervals to represent a fifty-year life span. I divided each value in half to get the female population, and in half again to represent the half of the people who adopted the practice. I summed the numbers, and came up with an estimate of 836,250,000. That’s an awful lot, and while it is billions of feet, it’s only hundreds-of-millions of girls.
My estimation method was quick-and-dirty, but it is sufficient to reveal the error. My apologies for the original inaccuracy, it has been fixed in the article. Thanks for keeping us correct.
Of course this all assumes that historians are correct about the fraction of families who adopted the practice…if they were wrong about the “two billion” thing, they may be off on that estimate as well. Damned ambiguous history.
Billions indeed! The bad math here, and the meek acceptance of this bad math, disturbs me more than any foot-binding or male/female circumcision.
Well, let’s see.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm
China’s population from 1000-1500AD was relatively stable, averaging about 60 million. Obviously, only half of them were women, and if this was limited to the upper crust, then the vast majority would not have had this done. Let’s be extremely generous and say 10%. Discounting infant mortality, let’s assume an average life expectancy of 50 years (these were high society women, after all, not farm wives), so that’s a surviving-to-adulthood birth rate of 2% per year. Which means that for those 5 centuries, 2% of 10% of 50% of 60 million = 60,000 per year, is 30 million women between 1000 and 1500 AD.
My math skills are a bit rusty, and I don’t think I can accurately do the same calculations for the following 5 centuries of exponential growth. But I think we can safely say that while the number of women whose feet were bound is indeed several orders of magnitude too high, it’s not in the billions.
Ugh, now apply “an estimated 90% survived the process” to these figures. Means that 10% did _not_.
Reminds me of the women of Burma with their Damn long necks.
Perhaps, but at least circumcision does not result in painful deformity. Much worse is clitoridectomy (euphemized, by some, as “female circumcision” when it is actually the excision of the clitoris!), possibly the most damning (and damnable) example of male domination of females.
Not to downplay the horrific nature of clitoridectomy (it is, in my opinion, much worse), but there are lots of people who consider circumcision to result in a painful deformity. Personally, I prefer to go without the turtleneck, even if it wasn’t my choice, and there are many arguments for and against it. It may have had its origins in “antiquated traditions,” but there is an argument it is preferred to go without a permanent hoody for reasons that include health concerns. Of course, there are no such arguments for clitoridectomy, unless you want to try to claim it cuts down on promiscuity, so it could cut down on unintended pregnancies and STDs.
One other possibility for that “antiquated traditions” notion would be the inculcation of (various) religious doctrine in the very young, who are not yet able to approach the subject with properly developed critical faculties….”
No need to single out faith. Knowledge is always evolving, and things that were taught in the past to “the very young, who (were) not yet able to approach (such subjects) with properly developed critical faculties” are not taught today. Scientists, historians, grammarians, etc., change their approach to any number of disciplines over time, so one could argue those theories that have been disproven, interpretations that have fallen out of favor, or applications that have simply changed can also be considered “antiquated traditions.”
Well written, also cringe inducing.
Don’t know why but the x-ray image reminds me of a face-hugger form aliens. :)
Frank G, your report contains a number of needless errors.
“When Radium and Uranium got discovered these elements emitted mysterious X rays.”
—No, they emitted gamma rays. These have equal or greater energy than X rays, but are produced by nuclear instead of electronic processes.
“Marie Curie who invented the word Radioactivity (how do you invent a word?”
—In this case, by noting that the materials were “active” (they were a source of energy) and “radiant” (the energy was emitted as rays into the environment). Simple.
“She died of leukemia.”
—No, of aplastic anemia. (It was brought on by the radiation exposure, yes, but get your terminology & history straight.)
“von Scholocky, an amateur artist invented a radium painted crucifix that glowed in the dark. The girls who worked for him painted their teeth with radium so they would glow in the dark. They got bone cancer.”
—This sounds more like the tragic Radium Girls story.
Care to tell us more about this von Scholocky, who is mentioned on the Web only by you (according to Google)?
“People began to wonder if all those particles in the patent medicine bottles & factory girls might not have some really useful application- say a weapon of fast and unimaginable power born from the primal energy of the Universe for starters.”
—Radium was not thought of as a potential weapon, if only because it does not liberate a lot of energy per disintegration (about 5 to 6 MeV). The thought of weaponry came to the studiers of uranium fission, with its release of 200 MeV per atom.
“Only America was willing to bet the rent and pay 2 Billion for a bunch of foreign types to go out to a secret laboratory in the New Mexican desert and sit around clapping erasers together until something blew up in their faces.”
—The “bunch of foreign types” included the best brains in the field of nuclear studies, who did not happen to be all Americans. Recall that fission was first observed in Europe.
Your “clapping erasers together” notion deserves only contempt. Some of the hardest intellectual (and engineering) work ever done took place at Los Alamos. Also, the detonation of plutonium was not some kind of accident: it was the culmination of a lot of careful and deliberate work.
“The generals called the bomb little boy. The pilots, who didn’t understand the bomb to well…”
—The pilots were not allowed to know the details of the bomb. Very few people were allowed that knowledge, and some of the construction details of the bombs remain classified today.
“When the bombs blinding purplish light exploded none of the pilots noticed any sound.
Oddly neither did most of Hiroshima’s residence [sic].”
—Sound does not travel instantaneously (the speed is roughly 350 m/s). The pilots were many thousands of meters away, and even the residents at the hypocenter were over 300 meters from the detonation, so no one was able to hear it at the instant that it happened. Very soon, however, the sound was indeed heard by many people. (The Japanese term for the immediate effects was “pika-don” — “flash-boom”.) Don’t misinterpret the simple physics of wave speed.
“By some estimates 300,000 of the 344,000 inhabitants of the city were killed. (the Hiroshima city government conservatively estimates 200,000.)”
—Check your sources.
From the Wikipedia article about the bombing:
“On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the Atomic Bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay,[16] directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000–140,000.”
Lastly, not an error on your part but (IMHO) on the part of Pakistan:
“Only the Islamic civilization is without it. But that position is about to change… We will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry but we will get one of our own.” (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister)
—What a wonderful goal, and what a grand use of limited national resources. This reminds me of some of the lyrics from Tom Lehrer’s 1965 song about nuclear proliferation, “Who’s Next?”:
“First, we got the Bomb, and that was good, ’cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the Bomb, but that’s OK — the balance of power’s maintained that way. Who’s next?
The France got the Bomb, but don’t you grieve, ’cause they’re on our side…I believe!
Then China got the Bomb, but have no fears: they can’t wipe us out for at least five years. Who’s next?”
“The pilots were cruising at 47,000 feet to stay above a large, surly-looking column of cumulonimbus cloud…”
wordsmith11 said: “I think theres an error in this article, cumulonimbus clouds reach up to about 300,000 feet into the sky, the tops of which are cirro-type. Are you sure they weren’t at 470,000 feet?”
You’re off by an order of magnitude, wordsmith11. From the Wikipedia article on cumulonimbus clouds:
“The base of a cumulonimbus can be several miles across, and it can be tall enough to occupy middle as well as low altitudes; though formed at an altitude of about 500 to 13,000 feet (150 to 3,960 metres), its peak can reach up to 75,000 feet (23,000 metres) in extreme cases.”
The noctilucent clouds are found at 250,000 to 280,000 feet, but Lt. Col. Rankin’s Crusader could not take him above 58,000 feet in any case.
Alan Bellows said: “Perhaps one day humanity will learn to recognize the imprudence of inflicting antiquated traditions upon those too young to make up their own minds.”
Cadae said: “Is that last sentence a nod to male circumcision?”
Perhaps, but at least circumcision does not result in painful deformity. Much worse is clitoridectomy (euphemized, by some, as “female circumcision” when it is actually the excision of the clitoris!), possibly the most damning (and damnable) example of male domination of females.
One other possibility for that “antiquated traditions” notion would be the inculcation of (various) religious doctrine in the very young, who are not yet able to approach the subject with properly developed critical faculties….
I have to admit I had given up all hope to ever see a new article here again.
I’m glad I was wrong!
Now off to read all those shiny new articles…
Call bull…
The same “Rare Earth” guys used all their “Science” and “Logic” to say that this solar system was the ONLY one in the galaxy, that NO other star had planets around it. Or, even if they did, they’d be so rare any life would be in another galaxy. They just discounted what they said earlier, counting the goldfish attention span of the net to avoid embarrassment/credibility damage and kept beating their chests when the extrasolar planets were discovered. Oh, they were too large, many were in bizzare orbits that’d endanger any earth like planet…etc. Of course, as the extrasolar planet launched a craze in Astronomy, more planets are being discovered including some near earth like ones and soon telescopes will be launched that can pick up earths around other stars.
Way I see it we need eugenics. Yes, in the past it was used to justify crude racism and class-ism, and the genocides waged in its name frightening. But, man faces that the Inferior do produce more than the superior and as civilization protects them from both weakness of body and weakness of mind their weaknesses will be passed on from one generation to the next till man himself is weakened.
You’ve pointed out at the end of this article how even JEWISH groups now try to do this, themselves both the most victim of “Eugenics” and due to a long period of the same culture most in need of it. Of course since it’s such a hot button issue (especially to them) they fight hardest against it.
I think Genetic Engineering could be the solution. That way the “Inferiors” could be eliminated with a simple shot, so say vision problems caused by genetics corrected, etc. That way we’d have the results of a long genetic purge but without anyone being “Hitler”. Also, we’d not need to be all blonde eyed aryans either, matter of fact look at the guys body modding to look like snakes and tigers…we’d have “Voluntary Chimeras” running around.
groover000 said: “I find billions hard to believe. Should this state millions instead?”
Most estimates are in the neighborhood of 2 billion. Keep in mind that it was a very popular practice for a thousand years. Example:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942
“All told, the number of Chinese girls who were subjected to foot binding is numbered in the billions.”
I find billions hard to believe. Should this state millions instead?
Remember this?
“”The Lair of the Ice Worm” is a fantasy short story by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter featuring the fictional sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard.”
Ahh, Harbin, many good memories (i lived there for 3 years a decade ago). Anyway, I’ve been living in China for 13 years now, travel a lot because of my job, I only met one (and she was easily 80yo, as the article says) woman who had bound feet (in Dalian, back in year 2000).
‘Lotus shoes’ can be bought as souvenirs in many cities in China.
When binding feet interferes with barefoot and pregnant, it has to go. ;o)
This DI article also brings to mind what I have read about some societies that practice clitoridectomies.
I have read for years that all cultures are to be respected and that we must accept what is done because some sound adaptive reason exists.
I used to accept that thinking.
Over the last several years, though, I have begun to think that some cultures are either inhuman or inferior.
I have not made a full decision yet, but I am leaning strongly toward that conclusion.
I like the shorts. And depending on who’s wearing them, the shorter the better!
Damn disgusting! Good thing I wasn’t eating lunch while reading this…
I signed up just to add this comment. Don’t jump on the global warming band wagon…things seem to be looking up for the glacier worms: http://iceagenow.info/2011/11/glaciers-growing-rockies/
BTW: Love the new Short Format.
Will look out for it!