It's common knowledge in Australia that you don't pitch your tent under a tree, alive or dead. I imagine that's because Eucalyptus trees have a habit of dropping large limbs without warning (it's an adaptation to survive droughts).
That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
121–130 of 251 posts
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#122Angband(the roguelike) is an excellent teacher of the point made in the article.
The game is quite long and if you die you have to start over from the beginning. You can also be killed in one turn if you are unlucky and not careful. The only way to win is to lower the risk to die at each turn sufficiently that you can play through the 100 000 turns or so that it takes to win.
Playing it has really given me perspective on risks in a similar way to the author of the article. In real life you end up doing some things a lot of times and then the risk has to be damn low.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
From 25 per 100,000 to 10 per 100,000 is not a massive change? Or, using the more appropriate rate -- fatalities per hundred million vehicle miles traveled -- dropping from ~7 in the 1950s to ~1 today? Again, the stack rank isn't a bad place to start if you have no other context. But we do. We're well past that point. We all know the NTSB, Auto Companies, Insurance Companies, et al have been hammering on car safety f…
I was looking at fatalities per miles traveled (given that is the measure of how much we use cars). It seems the trend line was dropping pretty nicely before the 70's, so I am not sure how much all the safety requirements have actually changed things. Seat belts and air bags might account for the delta from the 70's, but I am not sure it isn't the same reasons we see a reduction from the 30s. Looking at what happened…
> "I am not sure how much all the safety requirements have actually changed things"
Well, absent digging into details that neither of us have, that's going to come down to a philosophical position: do you think that trends will continue indefinitely in the absence of any additional efforts to sustain them?
> "You must be watching some other debate, I consider new legislation being introduced "what to do"."
I'm watching the debate where practical political reality says every legislative proposal, other than "study the problem", is trivially DOA due the lobbying power of the NRA and Congress' makeup and existing obstructionist strategy.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#124Seriously showering 365 times/year is, while normal in the US, really pretty bizarre and definitely decadent. Put on some deodorant, shower every other day and this guy could cut down his risk massively. And save colossal amounts of water!
Does he sweat regularly? Play sports? If not, in the winter, shower twice per week. Doing otherwise is really falling into one of the weirdest forms of American prissiness.
In general I shower when my wife tells me I need to. On average that means every 2-3 days. How strange and wasteful would it be if someone washed their car every single morning regardless of whether it was dirty or had even been moved from the garage that day! (I work from home so the analogy frequently works)
I know he's making a broader point about risk but if you want to get over some crazy warped American perceptions to improve your life and the world, obsessive showering is as good a one as getting over delusions of risk of terrorist attacks.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#125This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously . I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falling to the side and was going to hit my head, so I decided to twist so that I'd fall flat on my back, figuring I'd be fine. Well, I was, until a few hours later, when I started having chest pain and my left arm went numb and started getting shooting pains. Think…
I will assume you tried chiropractor, acupuncture, and perhaps even yoga?
After a snowboarding accident I was left with a knee that I couldn't run on. I saw physios for 2 years and saw no improvement. 2 months of osteopathy(twice a week) and yoga(3 classes + 20 minutes at home on the other days per week) and I was good to go, running, snowboarding, the works. I find I still need to do some yoga every now and again(maybe once or twice a month) but apart from that it's forgotten.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
No offence taken; it was instructive to see the whole analysis. I may take that to a meeting and read it to the Troop if you don't mind?
You're certainly welcome to, so long as you don't scare them off climbing ;-) I should also note that I am in no way professionally qualified to talk about safety in climbing, or risk analysis in general. I just like to climb, and prefer to do so safely.
No problem, I'll frame this as a 'Scoutmaster's Minute' where we talk philosophy and do Q&A. Give them something to think about as the go out the door.
Thanks!
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Collapse is better than Guns, Germs and Steel . It is about the end of isolated settlements, and the path which lead them to their demise. And I think it should be mentioned that Guns, Germs and Steel is rather extreme in suggesting an 'geological determinism.' [1] While his arguments are generally quite good, there is simply quite a bit more happening. A nice book to balance this is Ian Morris, Why the West…
GGS is the kind of book that makes academics despair [1]. I remember a Geography lecturer once relating how Diamond had been given honorary membership of some geographical society or other, and was giving an acceptance talk. It was a cause of supreme embarrassment for most of the people in the room; Diamond didn't seem to realise that he was addressing many senior academics who had spent most of their careers explori…
Do you have any specific criticisms in mind? That abstract implies that the paper doesn't actually argue with anything in GGS itself. Rather, "environmental determinism" sounds like it's a dirty word in their niche of academia, and they need to yell at GGS because it might be contaminated.
One way to phrase the distinction is that no one really expects huge empires in Antarctica, so everyone admits there's some role to the environment. GGS talks about more complicated effects that the environment has, without saying anything about the outcome being deterministic. It argues that the odds were somewhat higher of Europe invading North America than vice-versa, and doesn't even try to quantify by how much.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#128Seriously showering 365 times/year is, while normal in the US, really pretty bizarre and definitely decadent. Put on some deodorant, shower every other day and this guy could cut down his risk massively. And save colossal amounts of water! Does he sweat regularly? Play sports? If not, in the winter, shower twice per week. Doing otherwise is really falling into one of the weirdest forms of American prissiness. In gene…
In general I shower when my wife tells me I need to.
I'm not here to judge you or your lifestyle, but if I were to rely on my significant other to tell me when I needed to shower, I would feel as though I was taking advantage of their good will. I want to take care of myself and be attractive for them, not use them as a smell-o-metre.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#129Seriously showering 365 times/year is, while normal in the US, really pretty bizarre and definitely decadent. Put on some deodorant, shower every other day and this guy could cut down his risk massively. And save colossal amounts of water! Does he sweat regularly? Play sports? If not, in the winter, shower twice per week. Doing otherwise is really falling into one of the weirdest forms of American prissiness. In gene…
In general I shower when my wife tells me I need to. I'm not here to judge you or your lifestyle, but if I were to rely on my significant other to tell me when I needed to shower, I would feel as though I was taking advantage of their good will. I want to take care of myself and be attractive for them, not use them as a smell-o-metre.
use your own heuristic but showering every day, when all you did was sit in front of the computer and walk your dog in 40 degree weather, is wasteful, pointless, and weird.
Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer
#130This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously . I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falling to the side and was going to hit my head, so I decided to twist so that I'd fall flat on my back, figuring I'd be fine. Well, I was, until a few hours later, when I started having chest pain and my left arm went numb and started getting shooting pains. Think…
I some similar problems along with significant pain, also caused by falls (and a fairly serious injury that compounded things). I had pain for years, until I stumbled onto a combination of things that completely resolve the issues as long as I stick to them. I'm telling you in case they help. If nothing else it shouldn't hurt anything. In order of importance: 1. Develop & maintain significant muscle mass, specificall…
I highly recommend active release therapy to treat muscle and joint pain.