Piloting is the second most dangerous occupation

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:48:55 -0400, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

Sometimes I wonder how these stats are derived. I've been reading stats
all my life for this and for that. If there's one thing I've learned
about statistics it's that they can be skewed in just about any
direction desired by the manipulation of the micros involved to produce
the macros desired.
Another thing about statistics; take gambling as a perfect example.
There is an extremely high possibility that someone will win the
lottery. This is what motivates those who play the lottery.
On the other hand, the odds that the someone who wins will be you is
quite another matter.
It always amazes me that people insist on using the first analogy
instead of the second when considering a play on the lottery.
My wife and I have been playing the lottery game in abstentia for many
years. Each day we IMAGINE we have played our house and phone number to
the tune of a 2 dollar lottery ticket. We started doing this in 1965. It
is now 2007. We have played this "game" for 42 years based on the second
analogy of us NOT being the number that comes up.
As of today, we have placed 42 years worth of ticket bets at 365x2= 730
dollars a year x 42 years= 30,660 dollars worth of lottery tickets.
We haven't won naturally, but by using an unskewed statistic, we have
SAVED $30,660 dollars by NOT buying lottery tickets!
Not bad really. I enjoy playing the lottery :-))
Dudley Henriques

I wish I had been such a visionary in the 70's when I hit the legal
age to buy beer. I could be very well off by now IF I had just
IMAGINED drinking each of those beers for the last 33 years. :-))

Mxsmanic wrote in
news
writes:

Do I detect the aroma of sour grapes?

No, you read the post of someone who knows a lot of people in Mensa.
While there are some well-adjusted people in the club, many of them
are exceedingly strange,


Strange being a relative term, the mind boggles.



Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Doug Semler writes:

Well, I could pull out my Mensa card, but of course that doesn't show
anything, does it?

Given what many Mensa members are like, it is perhaps best not to show
the card. The organization is famous for attracting intelligent but
socially dysfunctional individuals. About 120 million people
worldwide qualify for Mensa, but only 70,000 have joined, and they are
a self-selected group that is not representative of intelligent people
as a whole.


Whatm and you are?


Bwahwahwahwhahhwhahwhahwhahwhhahwhahwhahwhhahwhahw hahhwhahwhahwhahwhahwhhah
whahwhahwhhahwhahwhahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahwh ahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahwhahh
whahwhhahwhahwhahwhhahwhhwh!

Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Doug Semler writes:

Well, I could pull out my Mensa card, but of course that doesn't show
anything, does it?

Given what many Mensa members are like, it is perhaps best not to show
the card. The organization is famous for attracting intelligent but
socially dysfunctional individuals. About 120 million people
worldwide qualify for Mensa, but only 70,000 have joined, and they are
a self-selected group that is not representative of intelligent people
as a whole.


Whatm and you are?


Bwahwahwahwhahhwhahwhahwhahwhhahwhahwhahwhhahwhahw hahhwhahwhahwhahwhahwhhah
whahwhahwhhahwhahwhahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahwh ahhwhahwhahhwhahwhahwhahh
whahwhhahwhahwhahwhhahwhhwh!

Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote:

Given what many Mensa members are like, it is perhaps best not to
show the card. The organization is famous for attracting intelligent
but socially dysfunctional individuals.

Well you are half way there.

On Aug 15, 5:49 am, "El Maximo" wrote:
"Mxsmanic" wrote in message

...

Given what many Mensa members are like, it is perhaps best not to show the
card. The organization is famous for attracting intelligent but socially
dysfunctional individuals. About 120 million people worldwide qualify for
Mensa, but only 70,000 have joined, and they are a self-selected group
that is
not representative of intelligent people as a whole.

Sounds just like your description of pilots as a population.

Things that make you go hmmm........

It's a very common response to exclusion from a group based on an
ability. You notice that there's a tinge of jealousy in his reaction,
which he has towards both pilots and mensa members (and probably
women; see also breast feeding). Next thing he'll say is "just
because you're smart doesn't mean you have commmon sense" (which is
true in a way but I digress). Besides, he complains about the
intelligence of people posting, and the point wasn't whether I am
socially dysfunctional or not (my pshrink seems to think i'll be over
THAT very soon now g), the point is that I can demonstrate
concretely my intelligence level by virtue of the fact that I have the
card at all. Take that into consideration along with what I do, and
what I studied in school. A sane person may conclude that I actually
might know about that which I am speaking. Mx demonstrates the
psychological compulsion of an excluded individual who just NEEDS to
be a member of the club at all costs (whether it be Mensa, APOA, or
breast feeders), because he feels left out of the group. Children
exhibit this behaviour (basically "jump up and down while yelling
'look at me...look at me'"), but they normally outgrow this by the
time they reach puberty.

Aside:
*All* groupings based on a demonstrable ability are "self-selected,"
from Mensans to pilots to NFL players. If he actually QUALIFIED for
Mensa, he would know that the only thing he would have to do to obtain
membership would be to 1) demonstrate the ability (via submission of
proof of test score) and 2) pay the membership dues. Aside from the
IQ test portion (demonstration of ability), there's nothing more to
do. No interview, NOTHING. In other words, it isn't because those
other 119,930,000 people haven't joined because they were denied, it
was because they CHOSE not to join. AFAIK, there are no secret
meetings where Mensans get together and have orgies or discuss social
dysfunctions. In fact, my only contact with them since I've joined was
to pay my dues every couple of years and read the magazine that gets
sent to my house every month. I do not know of any study that
examined the psychological makeups of the people that qualify that
join versus that who don't join. Hmm, that may be interesting, and I
wonder how that would compare to the psychological makeup of those
that become pilots (which is not quite the same, because piloting is a
learned skill, while intelligence is not, but they both involve
joining a "group" based on an ability).

On Aug 15, 6:56 am, wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:48:55 -0400, Dudley Henriques





wrote:
Sometimes I wonder how these stats are derived. I've been reading stats
all my life for this and for that. If there's one thing I've learned
about statistics it's that they can be skewed in just about any
direction desired by the manipulation of the micros involved to produce
the macros desired.
Another thing about statistics; take gambling as a perfect example.
There is an extremely high possibility that someone will win the
lottery. This is what motivates those who play the lottery.
On the other hand, the odds that the someone who wins will be you is
quite another matter.
It always amazes me that people insist on using the first analogy
instead of the second when considering a play on the lottery.
My wife and I have been playing the lottery game in abstentia for many
years. Each day we IMAGINE we have played our house and phone number to
the tune of a 2 dollar lottery ticket. We started doing this in 1965. It
is now 2007. We have played this "game" for 42 years based on the second
analogy of us NOT being the number that comes up.
As of today, we have placed 42 years worth of ticket bets at 365x2= 730
dollars a year x 42 years= 30,660 dollars worth of lottery tickets.
We haven't won naturally, but by using an unskewed statistic, we have
SAVED $30,660 dollars by NOT buying lottery tickets!
Not bad really. I enjoy playing the lottery :-))
Dudley Henriques

I wish I had been such a visionary in the 70's when I hit the legal
age to buy beer. I could be very well off by now IF I had just
IMAGINED drinking each of those beers for the last 33 years.

Actually, I wish I had been that visionary 20 years ago when I started
smoking...sigh

Mxsmanic wrote:
writes:

Do I detect the aroma of sour grapes?

No, you read the post of someone who knows a lot of people in Mensa. While
there are some well-adjusted people in the club, many of them are exceedingly
strange, much more so than other people with similar levels of intelligence.
The club attracts people who have nothing else going for them besides a high
IQ. Unfortunately, as a group they create the impression that intelligent
people are social misfits and eccentrics, when nothing could be further from
the case.

No, of course not, says the poster boy for social misfits and eccentrics.


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

"Doug Semler" wrote in message
oups.com...

It's a very common response to exclusion from a group based on an
ability. You notice that there's a tinge of jealousy in his reaction,
which he has towards both pilots and mensa members (and probably
women; see also breast feeding).

He's mentioned not being invited into a treehouse on several occations. You
wanna bet that's where it all started? Probably couldn't climb the ladder.

Doug Semler writes:

Next thing he'll say is "just
because you're smart doesn't mean you have commmon sense" ...

No. First, there's no such thing as "common sense." Second, intelligent
people have reasoning ability superior to that of unintelligent people, since
this ability is one of the hallmarks of intelligence.

*All* groupings based on a demonstrable ability are "self-selected,"
from Mensans to pilots to NFL players.

No. People choose to join Mensa, but they do not choose to be subject to,
say, military conscription.

In other words, it isn't because those
other 119,930,000 people haven't joined because they were denied, it
was because they CHOSE not to join.

Essentially, yes, although it's not a matter of actively choosing not to join
so much as it is a matter of not actively choosing to join.

Most intelligent people don't need the trivial validation that Mensa
membership provides. The ones who do are that way because they've
accomplished so little else in life, in most cases.

AFAIK, there are no secret
meetings where Mensans get together and have orgies or discuss social
dysfunctions. In fact, my only contact with them since I've joined was
to pay my dues every couple of years and read the magazine that gets
sent to my house every month.

Then you need to attend the AGs, where you'll learn about the "orgies."