July 2007

07.26.2007 Comment...
Before There Was Vick
Before there was Michael Vick, there was the United Kingdom. And monkeys with twelve-inch sticks. The following occurrence is from The Sporting Magazine in the year 1799:

"A quite unusual fight between two animals was staged in Worcester. The wager stood at three guineas, according to which the dog would kill the monkey in at most six minutes. The dog's owner agreed that the monkey would be allowed to defend itself with a stick about a foot long.

Hundreds of spectators gathered to witness this fight and the odds stood at eight, nine and even ten to one in favour of the dog, which could scarcely be subdued before the fight. The monkey's owner took a stick, about twelve inches long, from his coat pocket, tossed it to the monkey and said:

'Now Jack, pay attention, defend yourself against the dog!'

The butcher cried:

'Now, get after the monkey!'

He let the dog go and it sprang at the monkey like a tiger. The monkey was amazingly nimble, jumped about three feet high in the air and when it came down landed directly on the dog's back, bit firmly in the dog's neck, grabbed his opponent's left ear with his hand thereby preventing the dog from turning his head to bite him. In this totally surprising situation the monkey now began to work over the dog's head with his club and he pounded so forcefully and relentlessly on the dog's skull that the poor creature cried out loudly. In short, the skull was soon cracked and the dead dog was carried from the ring. Yet, the monkey was only of medium size."

07.15.2007 Comment...
The Back of the (Air) Bus
Popular Mechanics recently did a study examining every commercial jet crash in the United States, since 1971, that had both fatalities and survivors. It turns out you're 40 percent more likely to survive a crash if you sit near the back of the plane:

Does it matter where you sit on a plane? According to the Federal Aviation Administration, "It's an age-old question. There's just no way to say." A look at real-world crash stats, however, suggests that the farther back you sit, the better your odds of survival. Passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front.

That's the conclusion of a study that examined every commercial jet crash in the United States, since 1971, that had both fatalities and survivors. In 11 of the 20 crashes, rear passengers clearly fared better. Only five accidents favored those sitting forward. Three were tossups, with no particular pattern of survival. In one case, seat positions could not be determined.

In seven of the 11 crashes favoring back-seaters, their advantage was striking. For example, in both the 1982 Air Florida accident in Washington, DC, and the 1972 crash of an Eastern 727 at New York's Kennedy Airport, the handful of survivors were all sitting in the last few rows. And when a United DC-8 ran out of fuel near Portland, OR, in 1978, all seven passengers who died were sitting in the first four rows.

Where detailed seating charts were available, we also calculated survival rates for various parts of the passenger cabin. Again, the trend was clear: The rear cabin (seats located behind the trailing edge of the wing) had the highest average survival rate at 69 percent. The overwing section had a 56 percent survival rate, as did the coach section ahead of the wing. First/business-class sections (or in all-coach planes, the front 15 percent) had an average survival rate of just 49 percent.

So when the experts tell you it doesn't matter where you sit, have a chuckle and head for the back of the plane. And once your seatbelt is firmly fastened, relax: There's been only one fatal jet crash in the U.S. in the last five-plus years.

07.05.2007 Comment...
Room With a View
The last month or so has had the perfect mix of weather. It's been sunny and cool most days, with a little bit of rain now and then to keep it from getting too hot. It looks like that won't last for long though - next week it's supposed to hit 100 degrees. Yikes. In the meantime, I'll remember how nice it's been so far. Here are a couple of pictures I took from my living room window recently.