Posted on 09/02/2010 8:40:14 AM PDT by Pyro7480
TIME AND A HALF, WOOT! ;-)
SIGN ME UP!
(Of course, I don’t know nothing ‘bout blowed up oil rigs, but I learn might fast! ;-)
It's the "attention affect."
You wouldn't care about, or even notice, today's incident, were it not for the earlier BP incident, and it wouldn't have 500 posts on FR.
After a big earthquake, other earthquakes that normally would be unnoticed suddenly get more attention, and the spectacularly uninformed conclude there's some massive increase in earthquakes because they're seeing more news about them.
Yeah, I never cease to be amazed by those that almost seem to take pride in not having any idea what they're talking about.
The world is filled with meaningless statistical fluctuations; the human brain is evolutionarily designed to find patterns; overall, it's something that greatly contributes to our survival, but a side-effect is that we're really good at seeing patterns that don't exist.
If, on average, 6 events (pick anything) happen in a year, they're not going to be spaced 2 months apart. You're going to go 4-5 months without any at some point, then you'll have 2 in a month - for no reason whatsoever. Without an understanding of statistics and probability (which I think needs to be taught in high schools) people don't really understand how "normal" an irregular pattern of events are.
Among the dumbest cliches I see repeated here and elsewhere on assorte boards is "I don't believe in coincidences." The world is FILLED with absolutely MEANINGLESS coincidences, day after day.
Who owns the rig, BP? Did they get their equipment from the same Chinese supplier?
Flip a coin 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 times and see where your curve deviates from 50%.
From the most fundamental subatomic entity to the universe at large, everything is statistical, including the existence of God Himself.
At least, from the human perspective, that´s the most efficient way to evaluate existence.
enviro wacco’s, green industry, enemies of the US both foreign and domestic, Democrats pushing BS energy legislation, DOJ with the lawsuits over the ban, and I bet this list could be pages long with a little thought.
I wouldn’t rule any of that out, and you’d better believe the Left will do whatever they can to capitalize on this regardless of the cause, but the answer is usually simple. Accident or stupidity. There is too much going on and too many combustibles on an offshore platform to start anywhere else.
Mariner, and no.
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