Slashdot Mirror
The Dangers of Being A Microbiologist
Anonymous Coward writes "Globe and Mail is running a story for all the paranoid conspiracy theorists among us: "Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months.... Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit reminiscent of James Bond.""
Maybe this has something to do with that nifty Self-assembling "nano-building" virus from a couple stories ago :)
"Wait, this isn't my drink! AARRGGHH!!"
You forgot CowboyNeal.
Until you add in the part where the Anonymous Coward who submitted the news item was hired by the same biotech company who paid an editor at Globe and Mail to publish a story to scare the living crap out of their microbiologists.
Ahhhh, the simplicity of safe-guarding IP.
A "Pagan" is not a "Satanist". It makes me very angry when I hear those two terms interchanged.
Perhaps some of those deaths seem suspicious, but please: a murder-suicide by an associate of the deceased? I really do not see how the "spooks" could cause something like that.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
The assassin was *deranged*???! Not everybody lives on the East Coast, you guys. "License To Ill" isn't on out here for a while! A spoiler warning would be nice next time!
(apologies to the Beastie Boys)
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Now, however, that it's a story on Slashdot, (along with several other Big Hot Button stories which have made Slashdot headlines over the past couple of days), we'll get to sift through all the Perfectly Logical Explanations.
Let the Paranoia and Head-in-the-Sand-'Rationality' begin!
-Fantastic Lad --The Truth is somewhere in between. .
Imagine that there had been a missile attack scare in the US. This is roughly like looking through the ranks of recent deaths of computer scientists and implying that anybody who died who was working on Ada compilers, control systems software, robotics, or large-scale software engineering was somehow related to SDI work.
Of course, an X-Files style conspiracy would be so much more interesting, I suppose.
As most visitors to Slashdot should already know, at least one of these scientists is most definitely NOT dead. One year from now, we will discover that it wasn't him that died, but instead his robotic clone. At this time, he will most likely die again, only to be replaced one year later by a different scientist that is actually being controlled by yet another robotic clone of Dr. Wiley.
My apologies to the family of the victims, but I couldn't help but share my geekish laughter at the idea of "Dr. Wiley" (sic, sort of) mysteriously dying. My only hope is that the doctor, while he was still alive, got a good laugh out of his name and title, too.
I remember almost a decade ago, there was a rash of mysterious deaths in the UK of top programmers working on top secret military projects. That was also dismissed as a "statistical anomoly" and that working under such high pressures can cause suicidal tendencies.
Yeah, like the one guy who took a lamp cord, bared the two ends, and taped them to his metal fillings in his molars and plugged it in.
A lot of the deaths also occured in a brief span of time, and lots of strange and horrible ways to die.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
Bleh.
/way/ to far.
:) )
A Pagan is defined as;
n.
3. A non-Christian.
adj.
1. Not Christian, Muslim, or Jewish.
3. Neo-Pagan.
If the daughter was some deranged wacko who actually DID THINK she was talking to the evil one that indeed, she WOULD BE CONSIDERED A PAGAN.
While there may not be a world wide conspiracy of devil worshipers running around, there are indeed a few nut bags now and then who may think they are doing something eeeviilll. In this case obviously her delusions went
When pagan was used it obviously was not referring to the cute and cuddly "hug all the woodland creatures" new age neo-pagans, who to their credit have turned out some rather decent works of art.
(and that is all I am giving them. Well ok, and they also have a tendency to tie themselves to trees to help stop big corporations, which I have absolutely no problem with either.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
well, the fact that everyone is now wondering about these deaths, and is on the lookout for more deaths, might affect the result in several ways
1. microbiologists might start being more careful
2. people might try to kill more microbiologists, since it's the popular thing
3. contrarians (which many murderers are) might decide not to kill microbiologists, it being too passe
4. other effect
So, by all means, let us continue our scientific observations, but keeping in mind that the act of observing may influence the results, and may be dangerous to your health (if you are a microbiologist)
I remember hearing news reports of his disappearance right in the middle of all the anthrax mailings. There were more than a few conspiracy theories around that. Though some of the deaths sound a bit like some KGB assassinations from the cold war days, they would use poisons like ricen to cause what appeared to be heat attacks and strokes, They some Bulgarian dissident like that in London.....
I've never heard this word before, what does it mean? Nervy as in nervous? Nervy as in 'having a lot of nerv', Nervy as in 'like the fictitious NERV organization in Neon Genesis Evangelon'
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
"Statistically, what are the chances?"
The moon is covered with the results of astronomical odds.
Nathan
Yes, nitrogen is very inert. You get asphyxiated when you breathe 100% nitrogen.
Really neat!
With the advanced warning that Fantastic Lad's views on these matters come with a heavy bias, since I have become utterly convinced that prevailant forces beyond the understanding of conventional science are at work all over the place all the time, here are my observations. .
Anyway, I've found the whole process of making these observations utterly fascinating, and I know there are some out there who might also be interested. And of course, Caveat Lector should be employed at all times when reading my stuff. While I tend to know WAY more on most of these topics than a bevy of New Age morons, I'm still only on the lower parts of the knowledge mountain myself! For every bit of verification I find, I run across 25 lies and bits of fabricated sensationalist crap.
-Fantastic Lad
Now you are talking out your ass with no regard for facts. The term Pagan was coined by christians to refer to the Druidic, pantheistic religions in Britain and Europe at the time. The term is almost exactly as old as established "Big Church" Christianity. The religions which it was applied to predated christianity by a long margin, but those religions have almost nothing to do with the current crop of "Pagan" religions. The current incarnation of "Paganism" is a hodgepodge of eastern philosophy, european mysticism, and native american totemic beliefs. It originated around the late 60s, early 70s and has begun to gain widespread popularity due to the increasing unpopularity of "Big Church" christianity. But no, the current incarnation of Paganism is not older than christianity. No, it doesn't have anything to do with satan.
Kintanon
Disclaimer: I am a christian, my wife is a pagan. I am not a "Big Church" christian.
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Now they only need a Olympic to spread this biological disease at.
Tom Clancy, the Nostradamus of our time.
//Humming
I'm too stupid to preview.
I live in San Jose, and I've been laid off about three months. The other day I was watching View to a Kill, and I found myself genuinely hoping that Christopher Walken's character would succeed in blowing up the Silicon Valley.
Christ, I need to find a job.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
The Clinton Body Count
They need to break out the beowulf clusters.
The more you know, the less you understand.
is here
The author is an academic and lawyer who had a hand in drafting US anti-biowarfare laws - he knows the history, the players, and the reasons related to US biowar activities, the Gulf War Syndrome, strangely convenient anthrax attacks on the US Congress, and well-founded suspicions about what's going on here. It's authoritative and frightening.
Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage...
I give up. Is this MTV's latest The Real World cast? Where's the loveable, misunderstood homosexual?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Too bad the lone gunmen are dead. They'd have been able to get to the bottom of this....or maybe they already did...
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Oh my god! The server has suddenly gone down! I can't read the page that slashdot has linked to! It must the the conspiracy at work....
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Woohoo! We Canucks'll crack Washington's BS yet!
m ic robio.html
On Nov. 24 a Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashed on its landing approach. Of the 33 persons on board, 24 were killed, including the head of the hematology department at Israel's Ichilov Hospital, as well as directors of the Tel Aviv Public Health Department and Hebrew University School of Medicine.
on Oct. 4, a commercial jetliner traveling from Israel to Novosibirsk, Siberia was shot down over the Black Sea by an "errant" Ukrainian surface-to-air missile, killing all on board. The missile was over 100 miles off-course. Despite early news stories reporting it as a charter, the flight, Air Sibir 1812, was a regularly scheduled flight.the plane is believed by many in Israel to have had as many as five passengers who were microbiologists. Both Israel and Novosibirsk are homes for cutting-edge microbiological research. Novosibirsk is known as the scientific capital of Siberia, and home to over 50 research facilities and 13 full universities for a population of only 2.5 million people.
http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_14_02_
Now, I'm not sure this is anything more sinister than Washington doesn't want a cure or cheap treatment for AIDS found... read between the lines of the 1974 NSSM200 report and match it up with the extensions of drug patents and other well-known actions contrary to Washington's hand-wringing about this epidemic.
http://www.africa2000.com/SNDX/nssm200all.html
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937307041
So... if in a six-month period, Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox, Jeremy Allison, Bruce Perens, Larry Wall, Eric Allman, Brian Behlendorf, Randal Schwartz, and Guido van Rossum died under mysterious circumstances, you would find it only slightly more difficult to believe?
I see your point -- there wasn't really any hard data presented. However, unless you have some hard data yourself, you're just muddying up the picture even more.
By the way, the pizza boy was obviously an agent trained to convince the cops he was innocent. Either that, or her colleague was sick and tired of her ordering pizza instead of cooking for ONCE when it was her turn to cook and couldn't wait until the pizza boy had left before pulling the trigger in a mad rage. I don't know about you, but the pizza-boy-did-it story sounds more convincing to me.
Oh and then there was the guy that died of nitrogen exposure! GOOD GOD! The Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen! AAAAAAHHH! We're all gonna die!!!
include $sig;
1;
heh.. "pagan" comes from the greek "paganos" - meaning "countryman."
It refers (rather, used to) to the folk religions of the people, rather than the state-organized fun.
> I remember almost a decade ago, there was a rash of mysterious deaths in the UK of top programmers working on top secret military projects.
To be precise, a total of 20 programers linked to Marconi Defense Systems or the Ministry of Defense died suspiciously between 1985-1987.
The first mainstream magazine to break this story was the April 30th 1987 edition of Computer News (UK), but unfortunately the article does not seem to be available online.
However, it gets a mention in the Risks Digest, as well as plenty of conspiracy sites such as this one.
Chilling idea, actually...
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
The fact that the parent comment is currently ranked "+1 Insightful" makes me want to spoonfeed myself 10 kilos of ebola. If this weren't Slashdot, I'd swear the end is near...
Um, okay...
First, if you're running a conspiracy to off microbiologists, why those eleven? There's no pattern as to nationality, research subject, etc.
Second, unless you know how many microbiologists there are (20,000 academic in the U.S. is the only number given, which is clearly inadequate), how can you even show this is an unusual rate of "unusual" deaths? Only until you establish that there's a statistcally unusual number of deaths is there any grounds for any speculation at all.
Now, you see, conspiracy theories about those deaths have what the one posted here does not: logic. They were all Britons involved in defense software, and the rate of deaths by apparent suicide was twice the national norm according to THE INDEPENDENT.
It could still have been a statistical blip; things do occasionally happen to clump, and a doubled rate in a specific subsample isn't all that unusual. But a prima facie case for somebody bumping off British programmers exists.
I think you're *all* religious fundamentalist nuts.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
So let me get this straight. You believe in astrology and channeling, while simultaneously and pre-emptively denying the validity of unnamed charlatans whenever and whereever you deem them undefendable.
Let's examine these too beliefs. One belief is that practically any personality trait or significant event actually has something to do with the arrangement of stars and planets in the night sky. Or, in some cases, what they happened to be on the day you were born. Does this mean that it might be preferable for pregnant women to medically delay birth, for a more favorable astrological "sign" ? If they have a C-section, does it count. If an embryo is frozen for 3 years, and then implanted in a womb, does this affect things at all, or is it truly the birth date?
What, you retards never actually tested any of this? Your 10,000 year old voodoo beliefs? What, are you afraid that if there were such tests, things might show it to be unsupportable superstition? And if you aren't afraid that is the case, what prevents you from doing this?
See, this is what science is about. Figuring out what is going on. If atrology were in any way valid, not only would it strengthen your arguments that it is, but science would allow you to refine just what you know.
Statistics, lies though they are, don't even come close to supporting anything that atrology ever claims. Made up bullshit by the trolls here on slashdot, is statistically indistinguishable from this garbage.
Channeling? Hmm, dunno. I won't rule it out, but the truth is, this one would be much more defendable by you, on its own. It's certainly not repeatable though, let alone reliable. But this once, you get a "Get out of jail free card". I won't attack this one just yet.
As for me being "programmed" to not believe stupid new age garbage, I thank you, I don't often recieve compliments on slashdot. For those of you that don't speak the fruity dialect of nutcasian, that translates to "having common sense".
You see, it's not out of malice or distrust that the natural inclination is to not believe something until proven true. It's simply that there are any number (read: infinite) of possibilities, all contradicting. And it would be IMPOSSIBLE to give all the benefit of the doubt simultaneously. So therefor, you figure out the things you know for sure, while setting aside all the crazy stuff, until you get around to test this.
Why? Because it's the only way to function as a human being, otherwise you'd starve to death worrying that if you ate at the wrong time, the gods would punish you (which they might, if all theories are equally plausible until tested, they might very well kill you for such a transgression, and by the time you find out, it's too late).
And if you don't agree, all you have to do, is prove it to me with repeatable results. That's the cool thing about science, my belief doesn't matter if it's true.
For some reason, the original isn't accessible anymore... perhaps it has something to do with the content. If anyone knows people at google, maybe now would be a good time to change jobs - who knows whom does lunatic murderers will go after now!
dead scientists
Dumbassed media, can't even get the terminology right...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Reading stuff like this, although it is not placed in context (as others mention here), is startling. It does make me frightened in any case. A good starting point for the spread of biological and chemical weapons in the world, and perhaps more importantly who supports whom, is the federation of American Scientists website.
I'm a South African and was shocked to read about the support given by almost all Western Governments to the Dr.Mengele of the Apartheid Government, Dr.Wouter Basson, a.k.a. Dr.Death, in that regime's attempts to create bio weapons which would only affect black people. (Although why they had this strange idea that blacks are some other species I don't know). In any case, although probably many people don't remember it, in the mid 80's an East German microbiologist claimed that the actual origions of the HIV virus(various newspaper archives) were in fact in a USArmy bioweapons lab in either Virginia or Maryland (Ft.Derrick? I don't remember the name). He was laughed off at the time. I also, in terms of normal common sense found it somewhat implausiable. But the problem is, who do you believe, and who do you trust?
I was somewhat amazed at the many coincidents (reminiscent of a good episode of the X-Files) in the Anthrax attacks in the US last year. Why Florida? Why the isolated cases of lonely old women? Why liberal or popular politicians? How did the FBI get to the conclusion so rapidly that it was not linked to the 9/11 higjackers and that it was "probably of domestic origion"? Why has nothing ever come out of the investigation?
I don't really like conspiracy theories, as they tend to cloud real events, but who do you believe? And what do you believe? Did anyone in any so-called country ever give their politicians an explicit right to muck around with stuff as dangerous as this?
Your post makes me wonder about something. Perhaps someone on that list did have something to do with the anthrax attack. Four or five of those deaths could be potential suicides, and a stroke could be stress-related. Suppose it was a US researcher that made the anthrax, but that he was intending to make people wake up to the threat rather than kill anyone. It is certainly possible that such a person could suffer a severe fit of guilty conscience.
Alternatively, someone might have found out what the person responsible for anthrax had done and killed him or her. I wouldn't even put it past the US government to do such a thing if they felt the guy would spill national security secrets or they would have to divulge too much classified info to pin the crime on him.
On the other hand there might just be some anthrax crazed vigilante who is whacking high profile microbiologists.
Some of the deaths are almost certainly just coincidental, and maybe they all are, but I do hope that the FBI is at least taking a serious look at whether there is some connection.
I thought the biggest threat to a microbiologist was doing something stupid like mouth pipetting, or cross contamination. Although the wild world of Microbiology in water filtration doesnt see the wild side... Hell it's actually damned boring.... Oh look the same microbes I found yesterday... and the day before.... and the day before that.. Oh wait that one is different.... Gram stain... Yup Gram Positive... and it's oh wait... same thing....
The most exciting part of your day is handling the live sample bottles of E-coli.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well let's play the game, what are the chances?
Reading the article one will observe that most of the deaths involved people between age 45-64. The death rate for this group from the disaster center is 708 deaths per 100,000 people for all causes. Subtracting out the death rates given for medical conditions that almost certainly don't apply, that leaves us 200 deaths per 100,000.
Now the article states that there are 20,000 microbiologists working in the US. Let us suppose that 1/2 of those are over 40. And perhaps 1/2 of those are "important" enough to attract attention. That's a pool of 5,000 people.
Based on the rate of 200 / 100,000 we would expect 10 deaths annually, or about 4.2 over a five month period. Applying Poisson statistics, the probability of seeing 11 or more random events when 4.2 are expected is about 0.2%. In other words this really is a strange occurence, probably having some underlying cause and not just a statistical aberration.
Of course, not knowing much about microbiology, I might be seriously underestimating (or overestimating) how important these scientists were. If they are in the top 5% of their profession, as opposed to the top half, then the coincidence would be even more startlingly unlikely.
make a short video about the 'facts' of the case
and you too can own the distribution rights to this newsy event before someone else makes a movie about this with Pierce Brosnan or Wesley Snipes
Fuck the MPAA!
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Yeah, who would do that? It's almost like the "agents" of whatever "agency" that killed them was wanting to make it obvious these people were killed.
Yet the police mysteriously overlook everything.
The truth is, you can't trust anyone. Especially when money is involved. It's the one thing that can get you anything.
Remember that.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
Of course the morals and ethics they tend to get into tend to be justifications of their jobs. And as Sept 11 showed, it is sometimes difficult to have an intelligent conversation with a man bent on trying to kill or destroy you.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The pizza boy killed himself.
And often these inert nigtrogen rooms are built to have close to 100% nitrogen, to prevent the decomposing of objects within them.
The human lungs require and oxygen concentration of about 8% to function AT ALL. They are not that efficient; they are just efficient enough to deal with ~16-17% oxygen found in the atmosphere.
Anythign much less, and you die. Period.
Clever assasination. I'd like to thank the man, before I arrested him and put him on trial.
Killing people (even scientists) is ILLEGAL.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
So, as I have a doctorate in microbiology, I now have a legitimate excuse for indulging in paranoid fantasies?
But seriously, the conspiracy angle has a bit of flaw -- while the former Biopreparat (Soviet biological warware program) scientist Valdimir Pasechnik is dead, Kanatjan Alibekov (or Ken Alibek as he likes to call himself these days) who was nearly at the top of the Biopreparat hierarchy, is still very much alive -- wouldn't he be the obvious target of any conspiracy? Or, wait, he would be, but that would be too obvious. Anyway, gotta go, someone's knocking on my door (which is a bit odd, as none of my friends get up this early on weekends...)
Here are links to news stories on six of the deaths.
Dr Benito Que was beaten to death on Nov 12 by 4 unknown men Miami Herald. He was a cell biologist working on infection diseases at the University of Miami's School of medicine, and was killed as he left work.
Dr Don Wiley drowned under mysterious circumstances on Nov 16.
CNN.
Only a week after Dr Que, Dr Wiley disappeared after a dinner party. Criminal intent has been noted by the Memphis police. Dr Wiley was the foremost infectious disease research at Harvard.
Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik was found dead on November 23 Nytimes.
Dr pasechnik was a soviet defector from the Russian biological warfare who was an expert in Anthrax.
Dr. Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death on Dec 10. msnbc.
Dr Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing, 'cultists' are blamed.
Set Van Nguyen died in an airlock on Dec 14. Chemical incidents report center. He was in the field of animal diseases (anthrax) and died in an airlock filled with nitrogen. This is very odd since he should have been able to notice he was suffocating and open the door.
Steven Mostow died in a mysterious plane crash on March 25.Colorado 9news
One of the country's leading infectious disease and bioterrorism experts from the Colorado Health Sciences Center. Preliminary reports say the airplane engine failed. This is an extremely uncommon event, and does not necessarily lead to fatality. I am a pilot and can testify that the events of this death are highly suspicious.
Absense of evidence is not evidence of absence!
news report on plane crash
http://www.bk2k.com/bushbodycount/bodies.html Both lists are a hodgepodge of coincidences, incredible stretches, and faulty conclusions. Notice many of the names appear on both lists...
I think the deaths have to do with a corporation that has a twenty-year-old pile of PCB transformers rotting in the middle of the Boston harbour, and has surreptitiously genetically engineered a bacteria that converts PCBs to salt water.
Either that, or I've been reading too much Neal Stephenson again.
- undoware.ca
What the hell sense does that make? As a scuba diver, I know that humans can (and do) regularly take large pressures of nitrogen... so what does that mean?
see this post for more precise math.
Also, you are assuming that there were only 11 deaths, which is probably not the case. What stands out about these deaths is that they have mysterious causes, or blantant criminal intent.
Go do more investigation and you will find that there really may be something to this story.
We were always that microbiologists wash their hands before going to the bathroom.
Stories like this make me glad I selected something microbe-free for a career.
.
My father is a blogger.
This new generaiton of Spooks and Operatives dropped the ball again - people are finding out. The just need to keep it simple - a drowing here, a maiming there - and nobody notices. Just like it should be. By now-a-days, these whipper snappers have to get clever - swords, nudity, pagens and these new-fangeled aero-planes. Lets get back to business, and just do our jobs, and leave the 'flair' for the Operatives in San Francisco.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
No, you are just reading into it what you want to see. Pagans can't POSSIBLY worship Satan since none of them believe that Satan exists. If you worship satan you are something entirely different.
Satan worship is a spinoff of Christianity, technically it's closer to a christian denomination than a Pagan religion.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Of course, just keep telling yourself it's only a novel... ;-)
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
That's not "dying from exposure to nitrogen", that's dying from suffocation -- lack of oxygen.
As the original poster pointed out, we're all exposed to lots of nitrogen every day, doesn't hurt us a bit.
The original article specifically said He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen.. That's just stupid writing on the author's part. The guy died from lack of oxygen, same as if he'd walked out the airlock of a space ship.
(Early in the Shuttle days, a couple of technicians died the same way from entering the engine compartment after it had been purged with nitrogen.)
(And actually, I guess some people have died from exposure to nitrogen -- but at about six atmospheres pressure, from nitrogen narcosis (deep diving SCUBA divers). And even then the immediate cause of death was more likely drowning caused by the narcosis.)
-- Alastair
Preliminary reports say the airplane engine failed. This is an extremely uncommon event, and does not necessarily lead to fatality.I am a pilot and can testify that the events of this death are highly suspicious.
If you're a pilot, then you're probably also aware that light twins (which this was) are often referred to as "doctor killers", because they're typically owned/flown by doctor/pilots who only fly them occasionally, thus don't have the reflexes to deal with an emergency like this.
Light twin on final (low and slow) losing an engine -- leading to asymmetric thrust and consequent yaw/roll moments? And in a snow flurry?
Nothing surprising about crashing under those conditions.
-- Alastair
Damn. What a death. "He entered an airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen." Those unreactive gases sure are dangerous.
Surely those who write articles on such topics could do a little research. The author most likely saw that he died in a nitrogen environment and concluded that he died from the nitrogen. Silly writers. Nitrogen isn't a deadly gas! It comprises a huge portion of our atmosphere. It's the lack of oxygen that killed him. Next they're going to run a story about the deadly effect of H20 in our tapwater.
...were probability (in high school and University) and atmospheric photochemistry. And people often find themselves in a poisonous fog in both cases.
In brief, you are confusing statistical results after the fact with results before the fact. Lets use the "betting fallacy" on which Los Vegas continues to enrich itself: If I flip a coin twice, both times getting heads, the probability of that after two coin tosses is 1/2 x 1/2 or 1/4. But the chances of getting another head as a result remains 1/2, even though that outcome occurs only 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 or 1/8 of the time that I make three flips, because the outcome of the first two flips has already occurred.
If the result only occurs 0.02% of the time, then it will almost always occur so long as I select 50,000 events (0.02% = 1/50,000). Here, the statistical cluster involved microbiologists. If it had involved firefighters, would we have thought arsonists were getting rid of the opposition?
Statistically unlikely events occur all the time. Being able to pick and choose among them after the fact doesn't in themselves give them any significance.
Let's act like true Slashdotters: "Gee, I had no idea that Micro$oft was getting into biotech!"
This is very odd since he should have been able to notice he was suffocating and open the door.
Actually, no, he shouldn't. In most people (though there are some medical conditions under which this is not true), the sensation of suffocation is not caused by lack of oxygen, but by buildup of carbon dioxide.
Since breathing an inert gas allows the exchange of CO2 into the atmosphere, the only symptoms suffered are those of oxygen deprivation -- which impairs judgement and leads to giddiness like being drunk -- not a sensation of being suffocated. Due to the impaired judgement, people suffering from the symptoms generally don't recognize that they are suffering the symptoms, making inert-gas asphyxiation an especially easy way to die.
(Note: specifically because there is no sensation of pain or suffocation, inert-gas asphyxiation has been proposed as a humane method of execution.)
(Note: specifically because there is no sensation of pain or suffocation, inert-gas asphyxiation has been proposed as a humane method of execution.)
The mere idea of having execution become seen as humane frightens me. Someone once speculated that the problem with "stun weapons" is that because they did no (well, rare... well, pretty rare, anyway) lasting harm, police and authorities would use them with greater impunity. Hey, why not shock a demonstrator or two? No permanent damage, and it's humane!
Of course, you probably didn't mean to imply that execution is humane, just that inert gas asphyxiation is a better way to go than a bullet or the chair, and that's gotta be true. Still... I think it's better not to attach the words. Execution may be necessary sometimes... but let's never fool ourselves about what it is.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
...is that Evan Chan better be watching his back...
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
The idea being, if you're going to execute somebody anyway, asphyxiation with an inert gas isn't quite as brutal as electrocution, cyanide gas, lethal injection, a firing squad, hanging, or beheading, the methods usually employed in the world today.
"Less brutal." That seems accurate.
OK, the raving semantic consequentialist in me is placated. : )
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
According to hardcore Christians, it doesn't matter whether you think you believe in Satan or not, if you don't believe in Jesus by definition you're worshipping a false god, set up by Satan as a snare to the faithful.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
The Lone Gunmen are *dead*???!! Jeez, just spoil it for everybody!
Breakfast served all day!
This is not the first time there there has been a suspicious cluster of violent deaths of scientists reported in the British press. Last time, it was programmers. See Comp.Risks, RISKS DIGEST 6.67 : and Who's killing Star Wars Scientists?
For those interested in a book which follows a plot with a striking similarity to the Marconi incidents, try The Chain of Chance
by Stanislaw Lem.It is a shame that noone will ever read this because I posted so late.
Actually, I'd be inclined to say eight. There are 11 untimely deaths, but only 8 are truely mysterious.
The guy who got offed by his daughters and her satanist friends is reasonably well explained, and "normal" in that -- If you're going to get offed, chances are it's going to be by family or 'friends'. You even have living, breathing conspirators who, if they were part of a larger comspiracy, would probably be happy to talk about it. The only thing really unusual about it is the satanist connection.
Similarly, the Pizza delivery murder-suicide is similarly well explained and fits the family/friend statistical norm. In this case, however, everybody who was directly involved is dead. Unless someone can point to some evidence that the suicide was 'forced', I'm going to chaulk this one up to a love triangle, or something and mark it 'untimely but explained'.
3 untimely death in a short time period is probably not that far off for a group of this size. As for the other 8 deaths, I'm betting that they take this group far outside the statistical norm.
Any epidemiologists out there?
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.