h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

HI there is absolutly nothing wrong with the americans is that ok

Classy, you are one classy researcher.

dave

hi dave well im just speaking the truth thats all,this h2g2 is very new to me and im not as clever as most on ere im just lil old me n i dont go in for these very intelligent convos thanks angie

dave like i said im not very intellegent so can you answer me a simple question but please dont laugh lol in america what is a twinkie?,i have been wanting to know that ever since i first watched the film grease

A twinkie is a very processed 'cream' filled sponge cake. (The cream consists of mainly sugar and lard). The cake is greasy. Some people really like them. There is a widely held misconception that twinkies will last a very long time. (Forinstance the running joke is that if you leave a twinkie on a shelf get in a space ship, travel at close to the speed of light so that local time would have lapsed 1000 years, all that would be left would be cockroaches and the twinkie). However, the true shelf life of a twinkie is only about two weeks. There was also a famous murder case in the states where the defendant claimed his actions were caused by a 'sugar rush' after eating twinkies. Any defense that claims a chemical imbalance now is referred to as a "Twinkie defence".

Here is the official twinkie website (beware, it's almost as sugary as the cakes themselves): http://www.twinkies.com/index.asp

Yeeuukk!

It's not surprising that most Americans are so overweight.

hi dave lol well i feel better knowing all that now and i can honestly say i wont be buying a twinkie to try 1 lol

Hello!
Well, when I took one of my friends with me to America (from England) she insisted on trying one (despite my warnings...) she couldn't finish one. she felt extremely

They are greasy. I've eaten them. I heard that if you left a twinkie in the sun it turned neon green. I tried it out, but it only lasted 2 days before being absconded by rodentia.

Twinkies are just one of the many reasons all americans are overweight. We eat lots of red meat, drink lots of beer, don't work out, and when we're not eating a regular meal we're snacking on high sugar & high fat "snacks" - each of which can contain up to 1000 calories!

dave

well dave eat be merry and live for today thats my motto lol oh and my son is here an he would like to know what eggnog is plz

eggnog is advocaat (raw eggs and spirits) lemonade, brandy? Isn't it?
It's vile!

i dont know ive never tried it thankyou for ur time ill let u get on with your more intellegent convos lol hope to chat soon angie

That's very interesting, JD, and I think a valuable point is that it doesn't matter whether it was a 'disgruntled employee' whose 'girl' had left him, or a simple accident. People were hurt and killed, and Union Carbide bears some responsibility, as it would seem that their trouble-shooting systems were inadequate - one way or another.
As does capitalism bear responsibility.

If capitalism is at fault at Bhopal, than surely you agree communism is at fault at Chernobyl.

dave

Not entirely, no. For one thing, there's a heap less objective information available about Chernobyl. For another, much of the diaster at Bhopal was caused by typical capitalist ways of doing things, such as locating factories in 3rd World countries, in order to get masses of poorly paid workers, virtual serfs, then taking few or no safety precautions because of an attitude that the 3rd world has too many people anyway!

Actually, that isn't capitalism failing, it's fascism failing. But that's an aside.

If that's the way they typically operate, how come there aren't Bhopal like tragedies everyday?

dave

Eggnog is raw eggs (it's best to use pasteurized eggs as eating raw eggs is not generally safe in the US), milk, cream, sugar, rum, and bourbon (according to my recipe.) I think it's quite tasty if it's homemade, but I hate the store bought stuff.

I hate to say it, but you're right. Not because I have anything against you, but because I don't want to admit it...

Glad you liked the article. It was cheering to find someone else had done the same research I had done and arrived at remarkably similar conclusions, so I just had to back you up with a link to my (now slightly old) article.

Interesting you mention that space shuttle STS-107 disaster investigation link - I looked at a very similar article/story by some accident investigation individual(s?) myself recently, and was using it as a starting point for an article about that very subject. That is, the nature of complex systems in system safety, particularly with accident analysis. I aborted the arcticle after a few jotted thoughts due to time, but might try to re-visit it someday. It's a much-lamented fact in my business that there is no simple way to summarize risk analysis in a way that doesn't present the danger for over-simplification and as a direct result misapplication of resources and decision making. One simply cannot describe complex systems in simple terms without creating that very dangerous problem. It is, in my opinion, the *real* single-point failure that leads to all major accidents and disasters. At least, a single-point failure other than a lack of knowledge (entertainingly termed by some as "an act of God").

- JD

Hello Della. Hmmm, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say something like "capitalism bears responsibility" for the Bhopal accident, though I'm pretty sure you weren't suggesting that it was solely responsible. Lots of potential for a misunderstanding with a statement like that. I very much tend to agree with what you're getting at, if I read you right. Certainly the bad practices of UCC at the time were responsible for the Bhopal plant's bad practices, and almost as certainly those bad practices were driven ultimately by a desire to maximize profit at the plant and thus the company. Finding out who, exactly, encouraged such behavior is best left to the criminal investigators I think - and they have precious little hope of ever finding that out, though it is possible, if recent news about the wonderful advances in the legal battle to bring ENRON higher-ups to justice is any judge.

As for the large-picture root causes you're discussing, it's been my experience that there are two ultimate reasons why humans will put aside safety and "run the risk" (really an interesting phrase) in order to accomplish something: money and power. Obviously those two will intertwine very closely. In any event, I think it's rather pointless to debate whether communism or capitalism is more responsible for various industrial catastrophes. It seems to me that would be like comparing the relative evils of money and power. I am not at all saying that money=capitalism and power=communism, I'm just saying that comparing their relative responsibility for major industrial accidents is missing the point.

In the end, it is part of human nature to gamble, to take risks. We, as a race, have valued the ability of those who take risks and *succeed* more than we have the those who exhibit the ability to recognize risks and avoid them. It is only when the we lose the bet, so to speak, and the consequences of that risk make us pay that we seek to press blame. Perhaps an odd characteristic when one considers evolution theory and how beings inheret certain traits for success. It would seem logical that the more useful trait is to avoid risks, but if one takes the risk and succeeds, one usually has the benefit of a big payoff in doing so. As they say, it's hard to argue with success. Would that we were not so enamored with such success.

Now I'm going way beyond. Speculating. Hootoo is good for that.

- JD